F^5 



p]) 







t Outti) at tl)c 3lortl) l^^h 



AND 



%^ llw-fl& %n W^nxnt 



<¥ 



Hell) ^lorh i)i5tonc;il %m{\\i 



U MARCH, 1807. 



cy^Cy:^~^c^ /> 




/ ^ a:|)c 5Dutd) at tl)c llovtl) ^ulc 




®l)c Butrb iu llaiut 



A 



P A P E K 



JIF. A D I! K I'O i: K T II K 



lelw fflrk listorital %mi% 



3(1 MARCH, 1857. 



BY 

3. lUatts lie |3e^sltT, 

A MEMHEi: OF THE SOCIETY. 



NEW YORK: 
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 

M DOCC LVII. 



C^ 






Entered nccorJiiig to Act ot Congress, in tho yoar 1857, by J. Watts he Peyster, in tlio 
Clerk's Oftlrool' Ilie Distrirt ('oiirt of tlir^ Cnitml States for tlui SmilliurM l)i!<tri(;t tif NewVfiik 



in,ATT .<: SCIIRAM, riUXTF.l?S, 
POL'GIIKEEI'SIK. 



Iflii lloiit iijisiovical ^oriftii, 



Fou^'KEu 18Ui. 



New Yoi:k. Fehuuary 4, 1857. 

Fl!EI)EHR'K I)E PeYSTER, Esq. 

My Dear 8ir: 

In behalf of the Special Coininittee on papers to he read, I am 
instructed to express to your their desire that you will read the paper on 
tlie "DutcJD in i«aiiTC," jtrepared by (4en. de Peystek, which was an- 
nounced for, but not read, last evening— at the next regular meeting of 
the Society, on Tuesday evening, March 3d. AVill you allow me to add 
my own hope that you Avill be able to comply with the reipiest of the 
Committee, as I regard the subject as one of unusual novelty and interest 
to the Society. I remain, my dear Sir, 

"With great respect, 

Yours very truly, 

GEO. II. MOOFvE. 



iM^ciu ijoili §istovical Societji, 

Founded 1804. 



At a stated meeting of the Society, held in the Chapel of tlie University 
of the City of New York, on Tuesday evening, March 3d, 1857, 

The paper of the evening, entitled "tJ)C JDiitcI) at tijc Norti) S^olc," and 
"tljc 30utcf) ill i-Waine," prepared by General J. Watts de Feystej;, was 
read by Fuedekick de Peyster, Esq. 

On its conclusion, Mr. James W. Beekman, after some remarks, submit- 
ted the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the sincere thanks of this Society be presented to (iEN- 
EKAL DE Peyster fol* his able and interesting paper read this evening, and 
that a copy be requested for the Archives of the Society, and for such 
further disposition as may be advised by the Executive Committee. 

Extract from the minutes. 

ANDREW WARNER, 

Recording Secretary. 



-■yS 




ilk Jluicl) at ttc ^lortl) |)oIr, 

AND 

(Tk iliitcl] in ^laiiir. 



It is only rccuiith- tli;it the pfoplc of llie riilU'd 
States liavc hceii iiwakciuMl to a just appi'cciation of tlio 
uiai'vrloiis deeds, stii'riiiu' eiiterpi'ize, and indomitable 
S]jii'it. \\'hieli actnat('(l that u'loi-ions little nation, the 
Nctherlandei's or I lollaiidci's — ucnerally. hut iiiai)]ii-o]>fi- 
atdv, stvled Dutelniien — in estal»lishinii- theii- ind(']»en- 
<lence. \^'(' ha\"e Net to learn how iiineh ol'thewoi-lds 
])roii-i'ess is due to theii' e.\ani])le; and the ]n-aetieeol' 
cvei'V niaiilv N'irtiH-. To eoui-aii-e. fortitude and ])ati'i- 
otisui, th(,'\' added eeoiioinw iudusti'w int(\L:rit_v ami 
intellii;'enee ; and had their teiTitoi'ial ])osition aud ]ihvs- 
ieal ])o\vei' eori'esponded \\"ith the union of siieh I'ai'e 
([Ualities, this eoiidiined inllnenci' wiuild ha\(' I'aised 
theiH, as a ])eo])le, to a height of ulor\' hitherto ap- 
p]"Oiiehed l)y no other nation in the old world. 



As mcj-chanls, ploiighers of the sen, llicy rarely erred 
in tlie location of their iiiaritinie seltleuienls ; and, as 
colonists, — ploughei's uC the soil, — they never made a 
mistake in the selection oi" the lands they were to cnlti- 
vate; so much so that it has passed into a proverh in 
some parts of this very State — where the (iennans, and 
families from the Eastern States, came (.iftcr the iJiitch — 
"that there never was a good })iece of land that the 
Devil did not open his bag and shake out some Dutch- 
man upon it." 

Thus, early as 1575 they learned the value of the 
spice-bearing groves and fruitful valleys of the richest 
island of the globe — Java; and established their facto- 
ries and trading houses wherever bounteous Nature in- 
vited Commerce with her richest stores. When Colum- 
bus made his o-reat discoverv, it is well known that he 
supposed it was the eastern coast of Asia, of which he 
was in search. The term India was adopted by the 
Greeks, who, it is said, derived it from the Persians, — 
for it was unknown to the natives, — and was used to 
signify the indefinite regions beyoud the Indus, which 
were but partially known to them, from the vague de- 
scriptions of the Persians. Successive expeditions, in 
ancient times, revealed the boundaries of the countries 
watered by the Indus and the Canges, and their great 
tributaries, and gradually developed thtnr valuable and 
inexhaustible productions. 

Until the close of the 15th century, Europeans ob- 
tained the precious merchandise of India, partly throngh 
l^'gypt, whither it came by the way of the Arabian Sea, 
and partly from the long journeys of the Caravans, 
through the interior of Asia. The d()u1)ling ol" the 
Cape of Good Ho])e. in 1407. ojx'iied to the Portnguese 



7 
the teeming riches of that vast mine of wealth which 
has enriched the various nations who successively have 
obtained access to it. 

The Portuguese dominion in Asia was fast crumbling 
into ruin, when the union of Portugal with Spain, in 
1580, gave the finishing blow to their commercial pow- 
er in India. The Dutch had sought in the mart of Lis- 
bon for Indian merchandize, when Philip the Second 
closed its harbor to this adventurous and industrious 
people. Thus, it became an object of paramount im- 
portance toHind a passage, if practicable, to India by 
the Northern seas; and many fruitless attempts were 
made to accomplish this great object. Nevertheless, 
they availed themselves of favorable opportunities to 
enter the lists with the Portuguese ; gradually succeeded 
in stripping them of their possessions by their stronger 
and better manned Navy, which pursued the latter 
on their own beaten track ; and finally wrested from 
them their most important acquisitions in the famed In- 
dies. It was in the course of the former unsuccessful 
attempts in the Polar seas that the Dutch, as we shall 
hereafter see, found their way to our Atlantic border, 
and thereby became aware of the advantages presented 
by the rich lumber districts of Maine ; and although 
few are apprised of it, made several attempts by peace- 
ful colonization and by force of arms, to place them- 
selves in a position to share the prolific fisheries ; the 
unsurpassed masting and lumbering facilities; and, at 
that time, the rich fur trade afforded along the coasts 
and upon the shores of the rivers and estuaries of Maine, 
then the Province of Acadie. 

There, at the periods referred to, the bounties of 
the land actually clasped hands with the favors of the 



s 

sOii ; :iltli()U_uh ;it tlio )))'('s('iil date, in many iiistaiicos, 
llio haro rocks, (lomidcd of their stately evergreen for- 
ests, and oftentiiiies of the very soil itself ))y the intense 
action of rapidly succeeding conflagrations, ])resent. in 
laniental)l(> conti'asl, the \ety image of desolation! 

it is well known that the Hollanders first settled the 
three states of New York. New .Jersey and Coiniecti- 
cut ; )_)lanting theii- colonies on the shores of tw(^ of oni' 
nol)l(\<t noi-thern rix'ers; and that* a few years snbse- 
i|uenll\' llie\" con(|iiered a tei'ritor\' now constituting a 
fourth state — J^elawai'c ; when theii" sway extended over 
the districts hordei'ing on either side of the third great 
stream of that name. 

f\'AV. how('\ei\ com))arati\-ely, of those hest ac(juaint- 
ed with our lIistor\'. haxc heai'd that the Hollanders 
were likewise amongst the eai'liest Colonists (,f Maine, 
and at one lime displayed theii" ensigns, victorious in 
all the four (piai'tei's of the glohe. at mor(^ than one ](oint 
of that then remote prox'inee. 

The tirst Dutch commander, on record, wJio made a 
landing on the shores of Maine, was t^cnbrick Cjuilsoil ; 
he who discovered the iiohle estuai'y or rivei". which 
now l)eai"s his nam(\ ( )n tln^ 17th — (18th) — ^of .Inh', 
IGOi), (on th(^ thii'd of Se])tend)er, in v/hich yeai' h(> 
ancliored inside the bay formed l)y Sandy Hook,) that 
distingnished Navigator landed on the shores of th(> 
Penobscot, and remained in tliat l)ay for the space of a 
week, cntting and step})ing a new foi'cmast, and repair- 
ing liis rigging, damaged hy his previous tempestuous 
])assage. lie likewise had fre(pient and friendly inter- 
course with the natives ; some of Avhom it Avas even re- 
poi'ted could speak a few words of Fi'ench ; from wlnun 
he undei'stood that tradeis of that nation cann? thither 



9 

every year to barter with the aborigines. At this peri- 
od, the glory of the Dutch Military and Commercial 
marine had reached its zenith. East, south, and west, 
the ships of Holland were boldly cleaving the farthest 
waters of unknown seas, to crown their owners' enter- 
prise with opulence and fame. Even to the frozen north, 
Dutch courage and indomitable resolution had penetra- 
ted nearer to the Artie Pole than any othei' people liad 
before, or have since ; accomplishing such wonders at 
this early stage of Artie exploration, as stand unrivalled 
even to the present day, unkess perhaps by the recent 
exploits of Captain McClure. I3arcllt^ whom fate de- 
nied the enthusiastic homage of his native land, was 
that bold seanum who froin thirteen to fifteen years be- 
fore Hudson landed on the shores of North America, 
defied the terrors of a polar winter ; and planted the 
blue, wliite and orange stripes of the United Provin- 
ces on the most northern group of European Islands, 
known as Spitzbergen ; and on Cape Desire, now Zelania ; 
at the almost inaccessible extremity of Novaia Zemlia. 

If, then, to the English appertains the glory of a contest, 
kept up for centuries against cold and amid privations, 
crowned within the last five years by the discovery of 
the North-West paosage, by Captain McClure; to the 
Hollander is due the credit of equally persevering, but 
less successful, attempts to explore a North-East passage 
to the riches of the Eastern world — less successful only 
because unquestionably beyond the stretch of possibility 
for any one expedition, unless capable of keeping the 
sea at least from eight to ten, and in all probability 
for double, that period of, years. 

In proof that a passage — not navigable however— 
actually does exist, w^hales are hioiun to have passed to 



10 
and fro. Tims a wluile, struck by William Bastiaanz, 
Admiral of the Dutch (Ireouland Fleet, in the Spitzber- 
gen sea, was killed in the sea of Tartarv, with the Ad- 
mirafs harpoon, bearing its initials, and other marks of 
recognition, still sticking in his back. Muller relates a 
similar circumstance, as having occurred in 171 6. 1 lamel 
writes in 1653, that every year in the sea to the Nortli- 
East of Korea, whales in great uundoers are ca])tured, 
in whose flesh and blubber are found harpoons, and 
other striking ii'ons of the French and Dutch whalers, 
in the seas washing the Northern extremities of Europe ; 
whence, and for similar reasons, navigators thronghont 
the last live centriries were led to believe that there 
was, and is a continuous passage through Behring's sea 
and straight, around the north of iVsia, communicating 
with the straight of Vaigatch, which separates Novaia 
Zemlia from Russia in Europe ; nor does this testimony 
stand alone : it has other ample and satisfjictory coi-- 
roboration. 

To the llollandish nuiriner, the prudent, skillful, brave 
and experienced Sttrcntj — the most distinguished mai'- 
tyr to Arctic investigation, until the mystery of Sir 
John Franklin's loss transferred the sympathy and ad- 
miration of the scientific world to a more i-ecent, but 
not more deserving object — to Uarcnt;; is conceded the 
crown of having been the first to winter amid the hor- 
rors of the Polar cold ; deprived of every comfort 
which could have ameliorated the sojourn ; dependent 
even for vital warmth on the fires which are kindled in 
an indomitatable heart ; and uncheered from the l^JCjiin- 
ning to the end by the sight of, or intercourse with, 
any human visitors, such as enlivened and varied the 
winter-life of our most distino-uished, able, and accom- 



11 

plished explorer, Dr. Kane. Few readers, eomparative- 
ly, have turned their attention to Aretic geography and 
diseoverv ; but to those who have fully examined the 
subjeet, the name of Sorciit^ is a household word ; and 
we hnd Dr. Kane, imprisoned in the frozen North, com- 
paring his position, and its probal)le result, with that of 
the Chief- Pilot of Amsterdam. 

It is wonderful, — and I shall return to the subjeet 
a^'ain, — how the journal of the Hollander seems to em- 
body almost every incident which lends peculiar charms 
— charms which invest it with an awful interest — to that 
of every subsequent Commander, (^losely observant, 
Barents must have handled his pen ^v'ith the same prac- 
tical al)iiitv with wliicli he guided the helm and adjust- 
ed his nautical instruments ; for all those phenomena — 
those astounding, terrible attractions — which enlist the 
sympathies of the brave in favoi- of a Polar journey, 
and I'ise in more than gigantic pro]jortions to deter the 
timid from enlisting in such an undertaking, find place 
in that old Log w-liich survived it compose]-; whose 
leaves of paper, by a juetamorphosis not uncommon 
with authors, became changed into those of laurel, to 
crown the brow of liini who lay interred beneath the 
ice of Nova Zembla. His journal resembles in many re- 
spects the collection of antiquities, disentombed from 
Pompeii and its vicinage, in whicli we discover beau- 
ties unexceeded l)y more recent eiforts, and many 
things which ai'e looked u])on as modern discoveries, 
although well known and in common use among the 
ancients. 

•'Two hundred and iifty-nine years ago.'' writes Dr. 
Kane, '' lUilllam I3arcnt^, Chief-Pilot of tlie States-Gen- 
eral of Holland, — the United States oi' that day. — had 



12 

wintered on the coast of Novaia-Zemlia ; exploring the 
northern-most region of the Old Continent, as we had 
that of the New. 

His men, seventeen in number, broke down during 
the trials of the winter, and three died, just as of our 
eighteen three had gone. He abandoned his vessel as 
we had abandoned ours, took to his boats, and escaped 
along the Lapland coast to lands of Norwegian civiliza- 
tion. We had embarked with sledge and boat to at- 
tempt the same thing. We had the longer journey and 
the more difficult before us. He lost, as we had done, 
a cherished comrade by the way-side ; and, as 1 thought 
of this closing resemblance in our foi'tunes also, my 
mind left but one part of (lie parallel incomplete — 
Barent?- himself perished.^' 

A little further on we shall see that this pai'allel holds 
good with regard to other ciiTumstances. 

Whoever has enjoyed in his cozy library chair, (be- 
side a blazing tire, by the l)riiliant light of an argand 
lamp.) a trip to tlie Arctic regions in the graphic rela- 
tions afforded us bv Dr. Kane, and contrasted their and 
his comforts and luxuries, uuist have noticed, (if they 
read with any attention. ) the compliment Nvhieh lie pays 
so cheerfully and gracefully to the early Dutch Arctic 
navigators. When we remember the immense improve- 
ments, not only in the art of navigation, but the con- 
striction of vessels ; the va.-^t a.dvances in medicine, 
remedial preparations and surgery ; the perfection of 
armament. ]n'Ovisioning, and every other branch of the 
naval service, wiiich relates to the safety and comfort of 
sailors, and the preservation of their lives, under the 
most disadvantageous eireunistanees ; as well as the 
attaiuuient of tlie results souirht, whieh ha\c been made 



13 

within the last century, our astonishment will be still 
more increased, when we examine npon the map the 
extreme northern point attained hy tlie Dutch Arctic 
explorer I3Q^'cnt^ two hundred and sixty-one years ago, 
with his small and frail vessels. 

lie pressed boldly towards the Nortli, and from his 
log-books it has been conclusively demonstrated that 
he passed the most northern point of Spitzbergen. 
How much farther he penetrated to the north at this 
time, we cannot learn with any certainty ; but Dr. Kane 
says : ''An open sea near the Pole, or even an o])en 
Polar basin, has been a topic of theory for a, long time, 
and has been shadowed forth to some extent by actual 
or supposed discoveries. As far back as the days of 
Barciit^, in 1596, without refering to the earlier and 
more uncertain chronich^s, water was seen to the east- 
ward of the northern-niost Cape of Novaia-Zemlia ; and 
until its limited extent was defined by direct observa- 
tion, it was assumed to be the sea itself The Dutch 
fishermen, above and around Spitzbergen, pushed their 
adventurous cruises through the ice into open spaces, 
varying in size and form with tJie season and the 
winds ; and Di'. Scoresby, a venerated authoi'ity, alludes 
to such vacancies in the floe, as pointing in argument to 
a freedom of movement from the north, indicating o].)e]i 
water in the neighborhood of the Pole." 

Scoresby, the elder, infers that it was JBnrcnt^'s in- 
tention, in 1596, to make a. ^r«»6'-polar voyage in pur- 
suance of the scheme suggested, in 1527, by Robert 
Thorne, of Bristol : which was immediately attempted 
by two ships, fitted out under the sanction, and, ])er- 
liaps, under the jjatronage, of Henry VIII. 

A\ onderfnl, we may say. as were the I'csults attained 



14 

with sneh inadequate means ; they are still more won- 
derful when we compai-e them with the ver)^ little, if 
any, more important, eompassed during the present cen- 
tury, with all the superior advantaf^-es already enumer- 
ated, without considering the immense facilities afford- 
ed by the auxiliary aid of steam. "It is remarkable that 
two centuries of extreme activity should have added 
so very little to our knowledge of the Arctic regions;" 
and it is still moi'c juordfying to consider how little 
progress has been made in geographical discovery, 
since the earliest adventurei-s intrepidly explored the 
Polar Archipelago Avith their humble barks, which sel- 
dom exceeded the burden of fifty tons. "The relations 
of the earlier navigatoi's to these parts,''-is the testimony 
of the scientilic authors of the volumes entitled "Dis- 
coveiy and Adventures in the Polar Seas and Regions,"' 
"possess an interest which has not yet been eclipsed. ''- 
"The voyage of Maktexs. from Ilamlxii'gto Spitzbergen, 
may be cited as still the most insti'uctive. But the best 
and completest work on the subject of the Northern 
Fisheries, is a, treatise in three volumes, (octavo,) 
translated from tlie Dutch kmguage into French, by 
IJernard de Reste, and ])ublished at l^ii'is in bSOb un- 
dei" tlie title, " llistoire desPeches, (U^^ Decouvertes, 
et des h]tablisseniens (K^s llollandais (laii^ les Tvlers du 
Nord.'' 

Ou the 17th of June, 1')1M;, Ijavcut^ (lisc()\-ei'ed land 
in ihe latitude of 80 deg. 10 niin. witli his little ships 
or vlieboats, — fast sailing vessels with two masts, and 
usually of about 100 tons burthen, — so called, say vari- 
ous authoi's, because built ex])ressly foi- the difficult nav- 
igation of the \'li(' and Te.xel. In IS'27. with all the 
appliances and and I'csoui'ces of the Ib'itish ( Joveriiment 



15 
at his command, and stimulated by tlio prize of national 
reward, Parry made his way by the aid of l^oats and 
rude sledges, over the ice, less than tJiree degrees far- 
ther north — 82 deg. 40 min. 

In the same years (1596-7,) the bold Amsterdammer 
passed a Polar winter on the shores of Nova Zembla, 
and experienced all the privations, dangers, and inten- 
sity of suffering, without any resources except those 
arising from his own indomitable resolution ; much less 
than which, amid a comparative abundance of luxuries, 
prepared without regard to expense, and at the utmost 
exertion of science, have conferred a world-wide repu- 
tation on more than one officer connected with subse- 
quent Artie expeditions. When we read in the ac- 
counts of those determined men, the perils to which 
their fragile vessels — scarcely, if evei-, exceeding the 
burthen of 100 tons, and generally from 10 to 35 and 
50 tons measurement — were exposed ; the dangers from 
climate and disease ; from the savage beasts of the Po- 
lar circle, against which they had to wage war with lire 
arms the most imperfect, and weapons still more primi- 
tive and ineffective, their escape would almost seem 
miraculous, and their success a special Providence vouch- 
safed in consideration of their deep religious trust in 
the Almighty ; and their child-like faith in His power 
to guard them against all perils, even when cut off" from 
the rest of the world by impassible barriers of ice- 
mountains and ice-bound seas. What modern sailors 
credit to "luck," "chance," and "fortune," the "old salts" 
of former days attributed to Providence, that superin- 
tending Providence which watched over and delivered 
them. 

Dr. Kane seems to dwell upon Saveiit^ as the Patriarch 



16 
of Artie explorers ; and as he was the first of the Hol- 
landers, of whose voyages of discovery within the Artie 
circle we have autlientic accounts ; with him commences 
the narrative ol" the expeditions of the Dutch to those 
regions, and in Inct all others in search of the north 
east passai^e. 

But the audience may already have remarked, What 
have the Dutch Expeditions to the Arctic regions, or 
the Putdj at tlje Z^iTortl) |3ole, to do with the WwUl) in 
iHainc ? Much. The connection is complete, and the 
transition easy and natural. In 1609, ^cnirick ij^^son, on 
his third voyage — his first undei' the Dutch flag — in the 
famous ''Half Moon," in search of the North East Pass- 
age into the Pacific, finding his farther progress arrest- 
ed by the ice, and other impediments resulting from its 
presence ; suddenly put his helm up, and bore away 
for the shores of North America ; where die made his 
first landing on the coast of Maine, having coine to an 
anchor in Penobscot Ba}'. 

With this explanatory clause, we leave the shores of 
Acadie, to revisit those of the frozen North. 

As was remarked before, the parallel drawn l)y Dr. 
Kane between the details of his '^wn winter sojourn and 
that of I3avcnt^, in the extreme Arctic regions, holds 
good with regard to other circurastances-"a parallel,'' the 
Doctor adds, "which might verify that sad truth of his- 
tory, that human adventure repeats itself;" and another 
noted work on the Polar Seas and Regions observes, 
that "all the changes of the Polar ice are periodical, and 
are again repeated at no very distant interval of time ;" 
nature, as it were, thus lending her aid to complete the 
cheerfid or harrowing resemblance. 

The lion'ble Daines Barrington, in the two first pa- 



17 

pers of ''Instances of navigators who have reached high 
northern latitudes," ''produces four examples of vessels 
having sailed to latitude 81 1-2 deg. ; seven to 82 deg. 
or upward ; three to 83 deg. or more ; six vessels in 
company to 86 deg. ; three examples to 88 deg. ; two 
ships in company to 89 deg. and one to 89 1-2 deg. be- 
sides several others brought forward in his latter papers." 

He gives due credit to the reports of Dutch whalers, 
and it seems very evident to any but envious or incred- 
ulous rivals, that those who have penetrated nearest to 
the northern pole have been Dutch or Holiandish ves- 
sels, whose masters claim no credit to themselves — that 
is to their individual exertions, physical or mental — for 
their remarkable approximation to that extreme point, 
except that they Avere up North at the nick of time, and 
taking advantage of favorable Avinds and currents, made 
their way through openings in the icy barriei' as far 
north as 88 deg., and even 89 deg. 40 min. latitude, 
only twenty miles from the Arctic pole itself Mr. or 
(\iptain Scoresby in his "Artie Regions," and other Eng- 
lish writers in their publications, attempt to discredit 
these Avondrous achicA^ements of Holiandish shipmasters, 
while he admits that no people on the meridian of the 
Nova Zembla— or more properly speaking, perhaps, on 
the meridian of Europe — have penetrated as far to the 
North as the Dutch ; on the meridian of Asia as the 
Russians ; and of America as the English ; if they have 
not lost their chaplet b}^ the late expedition under Dr. 
Kane. The same authoi- fully endorses the adventurous 
spirit which actuated the Dutch AA^hale-fishermen, and 
eulogizes the ability, frugality and endurance, which 
characterized all their operations. 

"The Dutch" — says the younger Scoresby, no mean 



18 
authority, for ho had been a prosperous whaling-master 
himself — ''have been eminently distinguished for lln- 
vigor and success Avith which, for the space of more 
than a century, they prosecuted the whale-fishery at 
Spitzbergen.'' ^Yhen, after the competition between 
the Dutch and English had gone to such lengths, and 
the former had been compelled to resort to arms, against 
the unjustifiable aggressions of the latter, both nations 
sent armed fleets to the fishing grounds, whose broad- 
sides, reverberating from the ice-mountains and snoAv- 
clad rocks, ought to have delighted the whales, ^Yal- 
russes, and other denizens of the deep, could they have 
comprehended that the roar of human conflict, emulating 
the din of their own elements and zone, betokened the 
mutual slaughter of their most inveterate enemies ! 

This naval warfare, in which the Dutch Whaling Na- 
vy were ultimately successful — defeating, in 1618, the 
English in a general encounter, and capturing one of 
their ships, which was carried as a trophy into the port 
of Amsterdam, resulted in the districting of Spitzbergen, 
the head-quarters of the European whale fishery, in 
which the Dutch played such a conspicuous part, whose 
enterprise, says Forster, ''was in the fulness of its splendor 
from 1614 to 1641 ;" and according to De Reste, ''in its 
most flourishing state about the year 1630.'' To the 
Dutch was assigned the northern portion of the island, 
where, on Amsterdam-Island, upon the shore of IIol- 
landers'-Bay, they built their Arctic metropolis, appro- 
priately entitled "Smeerenberg," — Grease- or Fat- [i. e. 
Blubber-] Town ; or, according to the best authority, the 
Dutch " Description of the Whale Fishery," "Smeeren- 
berg" — a compound word, derived from ''Smeer," Fat, 
and "Bergen," to preserve, i. e. put, or barrel, up. 



19 

Such, indeed, was the bustle produced by the yearly 
arrival of two or three hundred vessels, containing 
from twelve thousand to eis-hteen thousand men. beingr 
doubly manned, that the haven, with its boiling-houses, 
ware-houses, cooperages, ropewalks, and other appro- 
priate erections — not to mention shops, dwellings and 
places of public entertainment — presented the appearance 
of a commercial or manufacturing town : and of such im- 
portance was this settlement, that the incentive of a lucra- 
tive traffic attracted numbers of transient merchants 
and salesmen, and even bakers, and other mechanics. 
When storms, thick weather, or any other accidental 
cause, drove the vast fleet of fishing vessels into port, 
the naturally sterile and desolate shores of Spitzbergen 
assumed the appearance of a thickly settled country. And 
such was the flourishing aspect of Smeerenberg, that it 
was compared by the Hollanders with their famous em- 
bryo metropolis of Java, which was founded about the 
very same time ; and proudly pointed out upon the map 
— within but a fcAV miles more than ten degrees of the 
Pole itself — as their Arctic Batavia. 

Let us now examine, as concisely as the subject will 
permit, the results of some of the early Arctic voyages, 
as far as regards the latitude attained preparatory to the 
consideration of those directed to the North Eastward, 
and peculiarly Hollandish or Dutch. 

In 1587, Davis ascended the strait, which bears his 
name, as high as 72 deg. 12 min. ; in 1607 Hudson 
made his way through the Greenland seas to the lati- 
tude of 81 deo'. and saw, as he believed, land as hisfh as 
82 deg. ; in IGIG Baflin penetrated the bay named in 
his honor, as high as 78 deg. 

Here, a long blank occurs in tlie authentic journals of 



20 

Arctic voyages until 1751, when Captain McCallam, ta- 
king his departure from Ilackluyt's Headland, on Am- 
sterdam Island, off the north west point of Spitzbergen. 
Railed into an open sea in latitude 83 deg. 30 min. and 
with such propitious weather, that nothing but his re- 
sponsibility to the ownei's for the safety of the sliiyj — 
his own timidity perhaps — prevented him from carry- 
ing his vessel farther on. In the last days of May, 1754, 
Mr. Stephens, whose testimony is endorsed throughout 
by tlie late English Astronomer-Royal. Dr. Maskelyne, 
was blown off Spitzbergen by a southerly wind, and 
driven as far north as 84 deg. 30 min. Throughout that 
drift he encountered biit little ice and no drift wood, and 
experienced a by no means excessive degree of cold. 

About tlie end of June of the same yeai\ Captain 
Wilson made his way through floating ice from 74 deg. 
to 81 deg. and thence sailed on ovei* an open sea. quite 
clear, as far as he could disctTii. to 83 deg. when he lost 
heart and I'eturncd to tiie south. (Captain (Uiy, after 
Four davs of fog, likewise (bund liiiiisclC at the same lat- 
itude, about the verv sanu' time. 

it is cui'ious hovv the Knu'lish, w liile thev lax our 
credulity to its utmost extent in Tavoi' of theii- own peo- 
ple, are willing to concede but little credejice to the 
lionest assertions of successful individuals l)elonging to 
an}^ other nation, even when those relations seem, to all 
impartial investigators, indis])utable. Here we have 
three English Captains corroborating the nari-atives of 
Hollandish schipper.s, and admittuig that they might 
themselves have gone much farther, had theii- hearts 
been as stout as the opportunities were auspicious. 
Wc Knickerbockers have every reason to put implicit 
faith in tlie statements of our ancestral i-ace. whose in- 



21 

tegrity and truthfulness are proverbial. Let us place on 
record, stamped at all events with our belief, that Hol- 
landers have made their way, as they claim, to 89 deg. 
40 min., — within twenty miles ofthc North Pole itself! 

But to resume : in diiferent subsequent years, cer- 
tainly in 176G, the Greenland' whalers attained the 
latitude of 81 deg. or 82 deg. ; in 1773, Captain Clark 
sailed to 81 deg. 30 ni. ; Captain Bateson to 82 deg. 15 
m. ; in 1806, the elder Mr. Scoresby to 81 deg. 30 m. ; 
and in 1811 the higher latitudes were again accessible ; 
likewise in 1815-16-17. This brings us down to expe- 
ditions, whose narratives are to be found in every public 
library, and it is sufficient to add, that although Parry 
made his way over the ice to 82 deg. 40, m. and Dr. Kane 
in like manner to 81 deg. 23 m., no ship has ever suc- 
ceeded in rivalling the achievement of more than one of 
the Dutch and English whalers, although the palm re- 
mains with the first — the Dutch. 

Let us now turn back again, and examining the chro- 
nological list of Ai'ctic voyagers, confine ourselves to 
those of the Dutch in that portion of the Arctic Ocean 
to which they seem to have directed their whole atten- 
tion ; as well as tliose of the English, foi- the discovery 
of a North East Passage ; or, as some say, of a- trans- 
polar passage. The first on record is thai of the Eng- 
lish, which dates from 1527, when two ships (one bear- 
ing the cheering mime of "Dominus Vobiscum,") were 
dispatched in the I'cign of rienry Vlll. for discoveries 
in the direction of the North Pole. This expedition 
was void of results, and one of the shi]js did not return. 
The second, in 1553, was thai of Sir Hugh Willoughby 
and Richard Chancellor — of which, more anon ; of their 
three ships and crews, but (uie returned : that immedi- 



22 

ately commanded by Chancellor, whose furthest north- 
ern and eastern limit was the discovery of the White 
Sea. The third, in 1556, was that of Stephen Bur- 
roughs, in a small vessel, the "Search thrift," who visited 
Novaia-Zemlia, most probably the southern coast, and 
discovered the island of Vaigatch, at the entrance of 
the strait of the same name. The fourth, that in 1580, 
when Arthur Pet and Charles Jackson, in the "George" 
and the "William," sailed from England in search of the 
North East Passage ; one of the ships made its way 
through the Strait of Vaigatch, but of the other no ti- 
dings were ever received, except that it had wintered 
in a Norwegian port. The (il'lh, in 1594, was the first 
voyage of Barcnt^, ( 'ornelis Cornelison, and others. The 
sixth, in 1595, was the Dutch National Expedition, in 
v/hich Bavcnt^ acted as Chief-Pilot. The seventh, in 
159G, was that in which Barntt;; discovered Bear-Island 
and Spitzbergen, and lost his life. The eighth, was in 
1G08, when an English vessel under Cj^nbrilk §ulison-our 
Hudson — made its \ya.y as far as the coast of Nova-Zem- 
bla, but prematurely returned. The ninth, was in 1609, 
when Iludson,having transferred his services to the Dutch, 
started a second time, ostensibly to explore a North 
East Passage, while his heart was fixed on that to the 
North West. He sailed to the eastward as far as the 
Port of Yardoehuus, in Norwegian Lapland, when, pre- 
tending to have been arrested by fog and ice, he re- 
passed the North Cape and steered across the Atlantic 
'for America. Scoresby, in his narrative, says: "The 
design of this curious navigation is not known" ; Hud- 
son may not have communicated his design, l)ut his 
reasons are evident without ex])lanation : lie was, no 
doubt, satisfied that Barents hnd done all that man 



23 
could towards solving the question of a North East 
Passage, and had failed. To the North West and West, 
many maintained that a transit was no less certain than 
that to the North East was uncertain. This he deter- 
mined to assay, and supposed that he had succeeded 
when he entered the bay of New York. 

The tenth was in 1611, or 1614, when a Hollandish 
ship is said to have accomplished one hundred leagues 
to the Eastward of Novaia Zemlia. 

This was an extraordinary achievement, and must 
have brought the Dutchman, ( taking into consideration 
the enormous difference between a degree of longitude 
at the equator and in this high latitude,) within sight 
of, if not up to, Cape Severo Vostochnoi. At all events, 
this triuiiiph for the tri-color of Holland is not without 
authority ; for Scoresby enumerates the voyage in his 
Chronological List. 

The eleventh, was that of Jan Mayen in 1611-'12 or 
'13, when that enterprising Dutch .navigator discovered 
that lone island, which now bears his name, although 
once known as Mauritius, or St. Maurice Island, in honor 
of the Stadtholder, Prince Maurice. 

The twelfth and last, was the abortive attempt, in 
1676, of Captains John Wood and W^illiam Flawes, who 
were sent out with two ships by the English Admiralty. 
As Wood, and his ship ''The SpeedwelV alone are 
mentioned, Flawes may have been re-called, or detained 
on the way. At all events, the Speedwell was wrecked 
on the west coast of Nova Zembla ; and Wood brought 
home such a gloomy impression of the dangers that 
were to be encountered in that quarter, that the idea 
of sailing around the North of Asia into the Pacific 



24 
Ocean was abandoned, upon his return, nnd report, at 
once and for ever. 

And now once more let us return to Barrutj. 

There would seem to be some races of men who \xill 
not bow to or acknowledge any superior but the Lord ; 
and in the consciousness of His assistance display a fear- 
less energy in combating not only tlie oppressions of 
stronger and more numerous peoples, but even the ut- 
most terrors of nature. Such are the Dutch or Holland- 
ers, concerning whom no testimony can be deemed more 
reliable than that of the Germans, at oncte a cognate 
and a rival race. And what say they V 

'^Rectitude, candor, honesty, constancy, patience, 
equanimity, temperance, cleanliness, carried almost to 
excess, plainness in their manner of living, fidelity to 
theii' word, are particularly prominent attributes of the 
Dutch. They are reproached, howevei', with avarice, 
greediness of gain, and inquisitiveness. Their confi- 
dence in their own powers, which has often the appear- 
ance of cold indifference, their imperturbability, and 
their circumspectness in answering and in judging, have 
brought upon them the reputation of sluggishness; al- 
though no one can deny that they possess industry, cour- 
age, and contempt of every danger, particularly in un- 
dertakings considered likely to result in ])rofit to them- 
selves." 

Having in a great measure freed themselves fr(mi the 
ferocious tyranny of Spain, the people of the United 
Provinces no sooner found themselves relieved from im- 
mediate danger, than they turned their eyes towards 
the true source of their power rnd wealth, the Ocean; 
that element which surrounded and penetrated their 
country on all sides, which towered as it were above 



25 

them, and which, when roused to fury, menaced their 
very existence. Still there was a kindliness mingled 
with its enmity ; and the Hollander might say — as the 
Dane — that the salt sea was his friend, whose jealousy 
brooked no other proud invader ; and held itself in 
readiness to drive forth the foreign foe, who dared to 
contest with it the prized possession. 

To the merchant of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, the eastern realms of Asia were the Alembic, 
which was to transmute his enterprise into gold ; to him 
the countries and islands, gold and gem-encrusted, spice- 
scented, and silk and tissue draperied, known under the 
general name of the East — were the Philosopher's stone 
which should change to power and prosperity the toil 
and sweat of his laborious days, and vigils of his ^\-akeful 
nights. Unable as yet to defy the mighty Armadas of 
Spain, those "castles on the deep," which guarded the 
approaches to the sources of those golden streams, which 
alone and so long had enabled the Spanish Monarch 
to continue the contest for the subversion of their rights 
and liberty, they determined to attempt, as we have seen, 
a north-eastern passage, and bearding winter in his pene- 
tralia, arrive at the wished for goal, by a new and un- 
explored channel. With no other countenance than the 
bare permission of the States General and their high 
Admiral, the Prince Maurice of Nassau, a "private so- 
ciety" of merchants equipped at Amsterdam, Enchuy- 
sen, and Zealand, a squadron of three vessels and an 
attendant yacht. Whether he enjoyed the supreme 
nominal command or not, the actual guidance of the 
whole was entrusted to lllilliam Barmtj, commander or 
Pilot of the Amsterdam ship — or, as Dr. Kane styles 
him, Chief Pilot of the States General of Holland, — who 



26 
approved himself one of the most expert nautical men 
of the age, prolific in able and adventurous Navigators. 

Thus an Arctic voyage of discovery, the offspring of 
private enterprise, was the first grand undertaking of 
the greatest Free-state of the Old World, scarcely yet 
emancipated from the shackles of Spain. 

There were noble-hearted Grinnells in those days, 
and the History of Holland teems with instances of in - 
dividuals actuated by like generous sentiments. 

This expedition sailed from the Texel on the 5th of 
June, 1594 ; and on the 23d of the same month reached 
the island of Kalguez, at the mouth of the broad chan- 
nel which contracts into the Strait of Vaigatch, through 
which one division of two ships, under Cornelis Cor- 
nelison, made their way into the Karskoe Sea, or sea of 
Kara, in which they proceeded forty leagues, or one 
hundred and sixty miles, to the eastward ; Avhen, find- 
in£j a wide, blue, open expanse of water before them, 
with the coast trending rapidly to the southward, instead 
of pursuing the discovery, they determined to hasten 
back and communicate to their countrymen the joyful 
news of their imaginary discovery of the North East 
Passage. In fact, however, they had only opened the 
Gulf of Obi, and a few days' farther progress would 
have brought them in contact with the shores of the 
Samojedes country ; thereby proving that the land 
which they deemed the eastern shores of Asia was 
nothing in reality but those of the Tobolsk Peninsula. 
Barcntj, however, steered a bolder course, and examin- 
ed the whole western coast of Nova-Zembla ; desig- 
nating all the remarkable points with appropriate 
names, from Latitude 77 deg. 45 min. down as far as 
71 degrees. By the first of August, the intrepid navi- 



27 

gator had actually reached the northern extremity of 
Novaia-Zemlia, in Longitude 77 deg. east ; but beyond 
that distant point he encountered so much tempest- 
driven ice, that he abandoned all hope of more sur. 
cessful progress further at that time ; and, sorely 
against his will, retraced his homeward course. On 
the coast of Russian Lapland, he met the returning 
Cornelisou ; and, thus strangely reunited, the two divis- 
ions arrived in the Texel, on the sixteenth of Septem- 
ber. 

One incident of this voyage is so amusing, that it is 
well worthy repetition here. Although beaten in a 
pitched battle against the sea-horses or sea-cows, at the 
Orange isles, the Hollanders appear to have had but little 
conception of the ferocity and power of the polar-bear ; 
one of which, having been wounded, they succeeded in 
noosing, in the idea of leading him about like a dog ; 
and eventually carrying him back as a trophy to Hol- 
land. They found, however, they had caught a tartar ; 
for the furious animal not only routed the party, but 
boarded and made himself master of their boat. Luck- 
ily for them, his noose became entangled in the iron 
work about the rudder ; and the crew, who had been 
actually driven over the bows, preferring to trust them- 
selves rather to the mercy of the icy-sea, than to the 
jaws and claws of the monster, finding him caught, 
mustered courage, fell upon him in a body, and dis- 
patched him. 

The reports of this expedition, although their con- 
clusions were erroneous, could scarcely have been more 
glorious, as far as regards the reputation they have won 
for Bai'cnt^. Unfortunately, the mistaken views of Cor- 
nelison excited the most exaggerated hopes in the Gov- 



28 
ernment and people of Holland. Led astray by this 
false confidence, Prince Maurice, the States-General, 
and the whole country, contributed ample funds, with 
which a fleet of six large vessels, and an attendant 
yacht, were fitted out ; not as for adventure and discov- 
ery, but for the prosecution of a certain lucrative trade 
with the golden regions of the East. 

Of this magnificent Commercial Armada, iOilliam 
Barents was constituted the Chief Pilot and Conductor ; 
but all his abilities could not avert a speedy and unhap- 
py failure. Nothing could have been more unsuitable 
to narrow, winding, ice-encumbered seas, than the lofty, 
deeply-laden, and unwieldy ships which now adventur- 
ed in them. 

Beset by more than usually abundant ice, and driven 
from their course by a continual succession of contrary 
winds, — of all the Arctic undertakings, none proved co 
abortive as this ; which, prepared without regard to 
expense, resulted not only in immense pecuniary loss, 
but in deterring the Hollandish government from af- 
fordino: further assistance to efforts in the same direc- 
tion. 

This National Expedition — for so it may be justly 
styled — which sailed from the Texel, on the sec- 
ond of June, 1595, having thus proved so unfortunate 
in every respect, it would have been almost reasonable 
to suppose, that it would have put an end, for a time at 
least, to such efforts. Not so, however. Although the 
States-G eneral refused to subsidize those who wished to 
renew the experiment, they nevertheless offered a high 
reward, to stimulate their countrymen, in attempting 
the discovery of the earnestly-desired North-East Pass- 
age. The Town Council of Amsterdam prepared two 



29 

small vessels, and equipped them for the purpose of 
discovery alone. Of these, one was placed under the 
command of the experienced B avznt} ; the other, of one 
Ian (JToriulto Hpp. Some historians, however, assert 
that one vessel was commanded by jJacob Dan ^cemskcrkc, 
and the other by 3an (JEornelis Bnp ; both able, resolute 
and enterprising Captains, — Barents acting as Chief 
Pilot and Ice-Master. Be this as it may, Barents exer- 
cised the supreme direction ; he only is known to fame, 
and justly so. He was the master spirit, and immortal- 
ized himself: of both the others, we hear little. At all 
events, no account was ever given of what Ryp actually 
accomplished; and no important discovery has ever 
been attributed to his exertions, in the second vessel. 
As experience has subsequently demonstrated, this ex- 
pedition, which left the Port of Amsterdam, on the 
tenth of May, 1596, sailed too late for successful Arctic 
exploration; yet, notwithstanding, accomplished suffi- 
cient to demand the utmost efforts of near three hun- 
dred years to rival the extent of its results. 

The English have endeavored to rob the Dutch of the 
honor of their discoveries, during this voyage — (even 
as in the New World, native historians have striven to 
deprive the Hollanders of much similar credit due to 
them on the Western Continent) — in this case, how- 
ever, unsuccessfully. 

On the ninth of June, Barents discovered a long, 
high and rocky island — shaped somewhat like a saddle, 
i. e. high at either extremity and low in the middle — 
erroneously supposed to have been first seen by the 
English Bennet, in 1603 — whose horrible repulsive- 
ness invested it with every attribute appropriate to the 
home of desolation and despair. Above its lofty 



30 

black — wherever free from ice and snow — and almost 
inaccessible cliffs, broken into a thousand preci- 
pices, towered that sheer peak which still is known 
by the befitting title of Mount Misery. This lone 
and dreary spot the stalwort Dutchman, IDarcnt^, named 
"Bear Island," from the circumstance of having slain 
upon it a large bear, whose skin measured twelve feet 
in length — a title, which the English afterwards tried 
to supplant by that of "Alderman Cherie." 

Barcntj next made Spitzbergen, or, as it was long 
called, East Greenland ; and coasted its western shore, 
even to its utmost northern extremity. Many writers 
have asserted that this vast tract of Polar land, or Ar- 
chipelago, was first discovered, or, rather, dimly seen — 
only seen — through mist and tempest, by Sir Hugh 
WiLLOUGHBY, in 1553, in the reign of Edward the Vlth 
of England ; but, as neither the Commander, nor any 
of his mariners, ever returned, it is scarcely possible to 
verify what land he actually caught a glimpse of; and 
what countries he did not set eyes on. 

Thus, the first prow which sought to cleave its icy 
barrier, remains to this day the trophy of the Arctic 
Circle ; and poor Sir Hugh Willoughby was the Sir John 
Franklin of the XVIth Century. It is very cjuestiona- 
ble if the first English expedition to theNorth-East ever 
saw, much less discovered, in the real sense of the word, 
or landed on the most southern shores of, Spitzbergen ; 
whose very name attests its Dutch sponsors, being de- 
rived from two Avords in their language — "Spit^," sig- 
nifying Sharp, or Pointed, and "Berg," Mountain. 

Barcnt^, however, made his way to its extreme north- 
ern point, through waters studded, in mid-summer, with 
field-ice, which his look-out reported from the mast- 



31 

head as multitudes of snowy swans ; an error not un- 
likely to have been made, since our own coast affords, 
in summer, opportunities of witnessing acres upon acres 
of white gulls ; whose thousands, swimming, can be 
likened to nothing but an ice-field ; and rising to a vast 
and dazzling fleecy cloud. This, the writer himself has 
seen at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy. 

How much further to the northward jBarcntj made 
his wa}^, the fog and clouded skies (forbidding observ- 
ation) prevented him from ascertaining, and posterity 
from learning from his log or journal. That he made 
the lofty Hackluyt's Headland — the extreme N. W. 
extremity of the Spitzbergen Archipelago, which lifts 
its snow-crowned and lichen-clad eminence 1041 feet 
above the level of the sea, we hioiv ; also, that he 
reached and discovered land in the latitude of 80 de- 
grees 10 minutes, on the 17th of June, 1596. 

Then, impressed with the idea that a rocky barrier 
stretched onward to the very Pole, 33arcntj headed to 
the south ; examined the coast, hastily, as far down as 
latitude 76 degrees, 50 minutes ; passed Cape Look- 
out, whose coast lines, with those of the adjacent land, 
resemble intimately the outline of the tail and hind 
parts of many species of fish — and sighted Bear Island 
again on the first of July. 

At this juncture, Barcntj, who had hitherto deferred 
to the wishes of dortielts Hgp, determined to allow 
his own experience and resolution to be no longer em- 
barrassed by the views of his associate : and, bidding 
him adieu, bore away alone, to the E. S. E., and made 
Nova Zembla at midday on the seventeenth of July, 
observed in latitude 76 degrees 15 minutes ; and 
is reported to have reached, at least, 77 deg. north, 



32 

in doubling Orange Isle, which forms its northern ex- 
tremity. 

Here, however, Barcnt^, it is said by some, realized 
the evils of his late departure from the Texel ; while 
others endorse the practice of the Dutch and Baltic 
mariners, who began, and still begin, their northern 
voyages somewhat later in the season than was subse- 
quently customary among the English fleets destined 
for Arctic expeditions, for whaling, sealing, and dis- 
covery. 

After doubling what was then known as Cape Desire, 
but now as Cape Zelania, the icebergs presented them- 
selves in such numbers, and in such close array, that 
Baventj became satisfied that if he wished to escape 
and seek a more hospitable climate for his winter sojourn, 
he must make all sail to the southward, and strive to 
escape through the Vaigatch Strait. No sooner, how- 
ever, had he turned his prow, than it seemed as if the 
icebergs had been transformed by some 'Wizard of the 
North," into pursuing demons — which, as is the case 
with other fell spirits — having been hitherto held in 
check by that lofty courage, with which the Dutch 
mariner defied them ; now, on the first sign of irresolu- 
tion on his part — mustered courage, and united in the 
pursuit of his flying bark. 

How often has it been remarked that "truth is stran- 
ger than fiction," and so it proved on this occasion; for, 
fast as Bai'cnt^ flew before the favoring gales, still faster 
flew the icy giants, which actually drove his vessel into 
a small haven, since known as Icy Port, in northern 
latitude 72 degrees and eastern longitude 70 degrees, 
and there blockaded him. His dreadful sufi'erings 
would occupy too large a space for this occasion, were 



33 

we to attempt to give them in detail ; sufficient be it to 
quote the remarks of an old author in regard thereto : 

"To attempt any description of their proceedings, 
their observations, or their afflictions, during this severe 
trial, would, within the limit of a few lines, — to which 
it is my wish to confine my remarks in this place, — but 
spoil a most interesting and affecting narrative." "The 
journal of the proceedings of these poor people," as Mr. 
Barrow beautifully observes, "during their cold, comfort- 
less, dark, and dreadful winter, is intensely and painful- 
ly interesting. No murmuring escapes them in their 
most hopeless and afflicted situation ; but such a spirit 
of true piety, and a tone of such mild and subdued re- 
signation to Divine Providence, breathe through the 
whole narrative, that it is impossible to peruse the sim- 
ple tale of their sojournings, and contemplate their for- 
lorn situation, without the deepest emotion." 

Thus, "cabined, cribbed, and confined," we discover 
other parallels, as interesting and remarkable, between 
the incidents of 33ari:nt^'s log, in 1596, and McClure's, 
in 1850-1. Let us examine two incidents, which seem to 
be, in the language of the la^tter, a mere echo of the 
records of the former. 

No sooner vfas the Hollandish bark within the jaws 
of that harbor, which they deemed a place of security, 
than the pursuing ice closed up the entrance, and even 
followed them within it, and lifting up the one end of the 
beleagured vessel, threw it into an almost perpendicular 
position, with the other extremity nearly touching the 
bottom, so that it was partially submerged. From this 
critical and extraordinary attitude, they were providen- 
tially rescued, the very next day after it occurred, by 
changes in the ice-fields, brought about by the influx of 

5 



34 

fresh masses, driven in by the pressure of the outer 
bergs, which soon formed a complete encompassing 
bulwark ; and precluded all hope of ever being able to 
rescue the vessel, even if the crew should survive to 
the ensuing spring. Gradually, by jamming in of suc- 
cessive cakes of ice, over or under the original field, 
first one side and then the other of the vessel was raised 
by the insertion of these ice wedges beneath the Ijilge ; 
until, first canting to port, and then to starboard, 
the groaning and quivering ship was raised to the top 
of the constantly-increasing ice-elevation, as if by the 
scientific application of machinery. While, thus, their 
minds were agitated by the ever-present dread of the 
instant and complete destruction of their frail bark, 
the noises of the ice without, not only that immedi- 
ately around them, but throughout the harbor and upon 
the adjacent shores, together with the thundering crashes 
of the icebergs — hurled against each other by wind and 
tide, mutually crushing their mighty masses, or toppling 
them over with a din, as if whole mountains of marble 
had been blown up by some internal explosive force — 
almost deprived them of hearing — likewise the crack- 
ing and groaning within of the ship itself, was so dread- 
ful — although merely arising from the freezing of the 
juices of the timber and liquids in the hold — that the 
crew were terrified, lest their ship should fall in pieces, 
with every throe, which seemed to rack it from deck to 
kelson. 

Thus far Barnit^. What now of McCluke? ''These 
preparations" for wintering — where the winter (1850-'l) 
overtook them, only thirty miles from Barrow Strait, 
where four days more — four days, denied their prayers 
and hopes — would have solved the problem of a North- 



35 

West Passage — "were made under circumstances that 
might shake the nerves of a strong man." — "As the ice 
surged, the ship was thrown violently from side to side, 
now lifted out of the water, now plunged into a hole." 
— "The crashing, creaking and straining," says Captain 
McClure, in his log, "is beyond description ; the officer 
of the watch, when speaking to me, is obliged to put his 
mouth close to my ear, on account of the deafening noise." 
Both of these statements,' however startling, are cor- 
roberated by the recent narrative of Dr. Kane. After 
that tremendous gale, "a perfect hurricane," which burst 
upon him on the 20th of August, 1852, battling whose 
fury he parted his three most reliable cables,lost his best 
bower anchor, and finally was wildly dragged along by 
"a low water-washed berg," which he figuratively styles 
"our noble tow-horse, whiter than the pale horse that 
seemed to be pursuing us," his brigantine experienced 
the same fearful "nippings," and the same gradual but 
rough uplifting, which have been already described in 
connection with the "vlie boat" of Uarentj, and propel- 
ler of McClure. The language of Kane's Journal is so 
beautiful and appropriate that to do the scene full jus- 
tice it must be quoted entire ; and whoever will pause 
to contemplate the position of the mariner of Amster- 
dam and that of our own country's Arctic hero, will 
be struck, if not astonished at the close resemblance of 
their situations, although at epochs centuries apart, — 
a resemblance heightened by the similarity of their 
vessels and crews, both as to burthen and number, — a 
parallel more perfect than that presented by any other 
recent polar expedition. Under the lee of a lofty cape 
and an anchored ice-berg, the staunch little "Advance" 
brought up at last in comparative safety, 



36 

"Now," says the Dr., "began thenippings. The first 
shock took us on our port-quarter ; the brig bearing it 
well, and., after a moment of the ohl-fashioned suspense, 
rising by jerks handsomely. The next was from a 
veteran floe, tongued and honey-combed, but floating 
in a single table oyer twenty feet in thickness. Of 
course no wood or iron could stand this ; but the shore- 
ward face of our iceberg happened to present an in- 
clined plane, descending deep into the water ; and up 
this the brig was driven, as if some great steam screw 
power was forcing her into a dry-dock." * * * 

"As our brig, borne on by the ice, commenced her 
ascent of the ])erg, the suspense was oppressive. The 
immense blocks piled against her, range upon range, 
pressing themselves under her keel and throwing her 
over upon her side, till, urged by the successive accu- 
mulations, she rose slowly and as if with convulsive 
efforts along the sloping wall. Still there was no relax- 
ation of the impelling force. Shock after shock, jarring 
her to her very centre, she continn.ed to mount steadily 
on her precarious cradle. But for the groaning of her 
timbers and the heavy sough of the floes, we might 
have heard a pin drop. And then, as she settled down 
into her old position, quietly taking her place among 
the broken rubbish, there was a deep breathing silence, 
as though all were waiting for some signal before the 
clamor of congratulation and comment could burstforth." 

In a note (17) at the end of Volume 1, Dr. Kane 
instances another case of similar peril reported by Cap- 
tain Cator, ofH. B. M. steamer "Intrepid." "His ves- 
sel was carried bodily up the inclined face of an iceberg, 
and, after being high and dry out of water, launched 
again without injury." 



37 

Barrnt; was now completely enclosed within — to him 
— impermeable walls of ice ; and there, in a hastily 
constructed hut, short of provisions, fuel, every thing 
which could make their existence hopeful, an Arctic 
winter and a Polar night closed in with all their 
horrors upon that feeble company. In the last days 
of August, 1596, their dungeon shut upon them. On 
the 4th of November, no sun uprose again to cheer 
them ; and three long, dreary months elapsed before 
his returning rays, on the 27th of January, 1597, glad- 
dened the hearts of the survivors. 

"In all the relations of this voyage, we meet with an 
instance of the extraordinary elasticity of spirit, and 
of the predilection for their national customs, peculiar 
to the Dutch people" ; which it would be an injustice 
to them to omit. 

The fifth of January, the eve of the Festival of the 
Three Kings, is one of those periodical seasons conse- 
crated by the Hollanders to amusement and exemption 
from labor. In the very midst of their sufferings, from 
the extraordinary degree of cold — for the cold of the 
winter of 1596-'7, was one of the most terrible on re- 
cord — they earnestly besought their Commander to 
permit them to celebrate that great Dutch Festival ; 
"philosophically observing that because they expected 
so many sad days, was no valid reason why they should 
not enjoy one merry one." Permission being granted, 
they chose the Chief Boatswain, or Gunner — for books 
disagree as to the individual — as their King ; a poten- 
tate with like authority and functions with the Lord of 
Misrule in the old English Christmas revels. The little 
wine which they had saved was now exhausted in pygmy 
bumpers, to the health of the new Sovereign of Nova- 



38 
Zembla ; and with their only remaining two pounds of 
flour, they fried in oil and tossed the pancake — "de 
rigueur," on such occasions — with the prescribed cer- 
emonies ; and startled the multitude of bears, prowling 
day and night about their hut, and made the dreary 
realms of the dread ice-king re-echo for the first time 
with the sound of human jollity and happiness. One 
chronicle even ventures to assert that the evening pass- 
ed as merrily as if they had been at home, around their 
own native tile-cased kagrljel or huge stoves, in that 
dear Fatherland, so fondly cherished, which they brave- 
ly hoped they would yet revisit — hoping against what 
seemed almost desperate hope ! 

Blockaded by the ice, beset by bears, whose growls 
and hungry cries, both at the door and chimney-top. 
seemed fiend-like, amid the howling of the Arctic gale, 
the calm, religious faith, and innate resolution of that 
glorious Hollander, the fearless lllilltam Barcnt^, seemed 
to burn brighter and more cheering with every fresh 
accession of calamity. On the eleventh of the ensuing 
June, engaged in constant combats with the bears, the 
survivors, fourteen in number, who had buried three 
comrades in the ice, dug out their boats from beneath 
the superincumbent snow, cut a way through the vast 
piles of ice which resembled the houses of a great city, 
interspersed, as it were, with towers, chimneys, lofty 
gables, and aspiring steeples ; and, on the fourteenth, 
launched their two frail boats,and set sail,running before 
a westerly breeze. By the seventeenth, they had pass- 
ed the Cape of Isles, Cape Desire, the Orange Islands ; 
and, working their way through the besetting ice, found 
themselves once more off the Icy Cape, in the latitude 
of about 68 degrees north, and about two degrees w<est 



39 

of Cape Desire. On the following day the boats were 
again involved in ice, and so beset and crushed that 
every one took what he deemed a last adieu of his un- 
fortunate comrades. 

Sarcnt^ — broken down by long and severe illness, 
and the extraordinary exertions he had been called 
upon to make — feeling the fatal hour at hand, while off 
the Icy Cape, desired to be lifted up, to look once more 
upon that terrible boundary, which, to him, indeed, had 
been the Ultima Thule, both of his labors and of his 
life. Gazing upon it, long and wistfully, he seemed to 
be taking his last look of earth. Rallying, however, 
he, together with the rest of the sick, was landed, on 
the ensuing day, upon that shore he was destined never 
to leave again alive. 

There, the severe illness of Claes Andriz or 
Adrianson was reported to the dying Ice-Master, who 
simply remarked in reply, that he himself was likewise 
not far from his end ; intimating that they who had en- 
countered such dangers together were about to enter 
the Port of Eternity in company. Still, conversing and 
looking on a chart drawn by Gerard De Veer, none 
dreamed that he, so cheerful and undaunted, could lie, 
as it were, upon the very threshold of his fate ; when 
he suddenly and gently moved aside the map, desired 
a drink of water, and instantly expired. 

After the death of J3arnitj — an inexpressible blow 
to the survivors, who had relied upon his fearlessness, 
experience and attainments in navigation, to extricate 
them from the manifold and terrific perils which 
beset their further progress — the two boats, with their 
crews, now reduced to thirteen men, broken in health 
and spirits, made good their escape from this dismal 



40 

country ; and, after a perilous and painful voyage of 
eleven hundred and forty-three miles, arrived in safety 
at Kola, in Russian Lapland : others say, Vardoehuus — 
from an hundred to an hundred and fifty miles further 
west — the most northern fort and port in Europe, in 
the Norwegian Island of Yardoe, off Finmark^— where 
they met with their consort, commanded by Jan Cor- 
nells Ryp, which they supposed had long since perished, 
— and, with gratitude unfeigned, in the "Merchants' 
House" of that seaport, deposited their shattered boats 
as "a sign and token of their deliverance," therein to 
be preserved as a simple but touching memorial of 
their own sufferings and the extreme goodness of 
God, as evinced in their preservation. 

Cornelis, or Ryp, having joyfully received them on 
board his vessel, set sail for Amsterdam ; ''where," 
says Davies, "they were received as men risen from the 
dead, the ftiilure in the object of their expedition being 
wholly forgotten in admiration at the surpassing cour- 
age and patience with which they had endured their 
sufferings." 

Words cannot do justice to the perseverance, courage, 
energy, and capacity of lllilliam Sarcnt^, or Bavcnt^son; 
and, be it remembered, that a greater portion of the 
southern coast of Nova Zembla, which the Dutch left 
unexplored, at this era, remains so ; and is so laid down 
upon the maps even of the present day. 

His memory is one of the Fatherland's most glorious 
possessions ; and two centuries and a half of unremit- 
ting enterprise and rivalry have not eclipsed the 
maritime triumphs he achieved for Amsterdam, and 
the States-General. 

It is somewhat remarkable that hitherto no great 



41 

national enterprise has accomplished more astonishing 
results in maritime discovery, than those wliicli have 
rewarded the perseverance and courage of individuals. 
BaiTut;;, with his single vessel, surpassed every thing 
which has since been attempted in that quarter ; in the 
same manner that Captain Weddell, a private trader, 
in a "frail bark of 160 tons,'' fitted out for the seal 
fishery, made more wonderful discoveries, and penetra- 
ted nearer to the colder and less accessible Antarctic 
Pole, in latitude 74 degrees 15 minutes, in 1823, than 
any previous navigator, clearing the track, and paving 
the way, as it were, for subsequent and more elaborate 
attempts. Our own gallant Dr. Kane, wliom the coun- 
try may well hoiuu", both living and dead, with his 
little hermaphrodite brig of 144 tons, is another re- 
markable instance. G-reat is their glory, immortal 
their renown ! But, even yet, the palm remains Avith 
Barents ; for, to the first in any dangerous expedition, 
belongs, or should belong, the maximum of credit. He 
who leads the way deserves the unlading coronal ; pro- 
vided he is not too for outstripped by those who avail 
themselves of his experience, and follow in his wake. 
To lllilliant 13areiit^, it would seem to ine, the vfords of 
Horace will ap})ly, more justly than to any other sea- 
man whose keel has ever ploughed the Arctic Seas, or 
whose prow has ever "bored" the Polar Ice : 

"Illi robiir efc ;os triplex 
Circa j)cctii9 erat, qui fragilcm truci 
Commisit pelago ratein 
Primus," 
"lu Oak or triple Brass his Heart was casM, who first to bellowing Seas 
eutrusted the frail Bark." 

How apposite the whole, particularly " the frail 
bark," and the term "bellowing," as applied to the 
Polar Seas and their denizens ! 

6 



42 

However brave and successful subsequent explorers 
have proved themselves, his be the laurel who the peril 
first assayed ; and even as the Latin poet celebrates in 
undying verse the resolution of the first mortal Avho 
dared the tempestuous waves, the Knickerbocker's 
heart should cling to Bavcnt^, the Patriarch of Arctic 
navigators, with scarcely less affectionate remembrance 
than that which warms his bosom toward Kane, A three- 
fold cord should bind the New-Netherlander's sympathies 
to Barents, whose corpse, bedewed with manhood's burn- 
ing tears, sleeps, tombed within the Arctic Circle — his 
trophy, obelisk and sepulchre, the undissolving glacier 
and the eternal iceberg ; his dirge, the howling of the 
polar bear and roaring of the fearless walrus, the thun- 
der-tones of the ice conflict, and the wild music of the 
Arctic gale, amid the monumental ice — the first, a 
common origin ; the second, his success ; the third, 
his fate : a victor, to whose very bones Fortune deni- 
ed a fitting obsequy. 

And here, a short digression seems admissible, whose 
sombre interest must excuse a farther tax upon the 
reader's time and patience. Barcut^ and his fellow 
Dutchmen were not the only Hollanders who dared 
affront the Winter King by trespassing upon his frigid 
realm, and wintering amid the polar ice, two centuries 
and a quarter since. Dutch sailors were the first hu- 
man beings who ever voluntarily passed a winter 
on the inhospitable, ice-bound shores of Spitzbergen. 
The forlorn hope consisted of seven volunteers from 
the Dutch fleet, in 1633, all of whom were restored to 
their country in safety. This was a regular attempt to 
establish a settlement. The following year — 1634 — a 
second party of seven voluntarily assumed the place 



43 
of their fortunate predecessors, all of whom perished. 
Thus terminated all hopes of colonizing this northern 
region with success. The bodies of the last seven 
were found twenty years afterwards, in a perfect state 
of preservation — three enclosed in rude cofl&ns, two 
in their beds, and two on the floor, "not having suffered 
the slightest degree of putrefaction. " 

Again : In addition to the honor of its discovery, 
the Dutch likewise attempted to colonize Jan-Mayen 
Island, latitude 70 deg. 29 minutes north, longitude 
7 deg. 31 minutes west, wdiose lofty peak, Beerenberg, 
6,870 feet above the level of the sea, was seen, ninety - 
five to one hundred miles, from the deck of the ship 
"Fame" ; while a volcano, the Esk — named after the Esk 
whaler, of Whitby, whose master, William Scoresby, 
Junior, was the first to explore its desolation, — is occa- 
sionally active, and enjoys the reputation of being the 
most northern burning mountain ever witnessed in 
eruption. Seven Dutch seamen are, without doubt, 
the only human beings who ever wintered on this 
island. They were volunteers from the Dutch Whale 
Fishing Fleet, whose fearlessness the "Greenland Com- 
pany" availed themselves of, to make a most dangerous 
but interesting experiment in colonization. It is con- 
ceded that the journal of these mariners furnishes a 
better account, both of the wind and weather, from 
the 26th August, 1633, to the 1st May, 1634, than 
almost any published record of observation made in so 
high a latitude. Every one of them survived the 
perils and severities of the winter months, but perished 
miserably from the attacks of scurvy, induced by their 
inability to provide themselves with fresh provisions. 
The first death occurred on the 16th of April, and on 



44 
the first of May their journal terminated. When the 
Dutcli fleet returned, on the fourth of June, they found 
the eoi'pses of the seven, mummified by the frost, lying 
within their huts, at onee their dwellings and their 
tombs. 

From IJarcntj, and this succinet but loving tri- 
bute to the Duteh, within the Northern frigid zone, let 
us resume, once more, a topic nearer home — that of 

S!);c Diitc!) in ill.arae. 

We^ Americans, neglecting both the surpassing mag- 
nificence — nay, often sublimity — and the rare loveliness 
of various districts of our ownj Continent, wander forth 
across the seas, to seek, at great expense, and amid 
physical and moral dangers, scenery in foreign lands, 
which falls short of the attractions of much we possess 
at home. Thus, how few are alive to the glorious and 
varied beauty of that zone of islands, which, commen- 
cing with the perfection of Casco Bay, terminates with 
the precipitous, seal-frequented shores of Crand-Menan, 
at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy. Of all the Ar- 
chipelagoes sung by the poet, described by the historian, 
and depicted by the painter, there is none which can 
exceed, in its union of charms, those two hundred miles 
of intermingling land and ocean, Avhere, lost in each 
other's embrace, the sea seems in love with the land, 
and the shoi'e with the foam-frosted waves ! 

At two points of this interesting and beautiful coast 
the Dutch planted the honored flag of the United Pro- 
vinces ; and, at several other points, they themselves 
were located by their English conquerors ; wlio, desi- 
rous of availing themselves of thcii- thrift and industry, 
transplanted them thither from the shores of the Hud- 



45 
son — (where they had ah^eady achieved a partial con- 
quest over Nature, by their energetic industry, and had 
entirely [?] conquered the barbarous instincts and enmity 
of their savage neighbors, by their stubborn integrity 
and sober diligence) — to renew the encounter with a 
more inhospitable climate, and more savage tribes, for 
the benefit of a bigoted and unscrupulous despot ! 

In compiling the present article, much time and labor 
has been expended in the investigation of old records, 
which, to their want of interest and grace, added a 
barrenness unusual and repulsive. So that, after all, 
the greater portion of the facts embodied have been 
derived from Sullivan's History of the District of Maine, 
published in Boston, in 1795; and Williamson's History 
of the State of Maine, published at Hallowxll, in 1839. 
Every work, however, which promised farther or cor- 
roborating testimony, and was available, was eagerly 
sought and carefully examined, as far as time and op- 
portunities permitted. In all these investigations, 
nothing appears in any of the works consulted, with 
regard to the Commission issued to (Eovuclis Stccnumck, 
as Governor of Nova Scotia and Acadie, given by the 
Directors of the Privileged General West India Compa- 
ny of the United Netherlands, at Amsterdam, on the 
27th of October, 1676; or, of their Ordinance, dated 
the eleventh of September, of that year, — presented at 
the November meeting of the New York Historical So- 
ciety. Still, there is scarcely any question, but that the 
frigate ' 'Flying Horse," commanded by Capt. Jurriaen 
AERNOUTS,fromCuracoa,was the one whose crew captured 
the Fort Pentagoet, or Pemtegeovett — the name origin- 
ally given by the French to the Penobscot — in the ^'ery 
year mentioned in the Ordinance. 



V 



46 

Although the Commission to Stccniunrk, granted by 
the General West India Company, is too long to insert 
in this connection, its examination will repay the read- 
er, inasmuch as it will remove all doubts as to the reality 
of the conquest effected by the Dutch, which could not 
be considered a mere temporary occupation, since it was 
still looked upon as an unquestioned possession after 
the lapse of two years. In fact, it must have been a 
conquest as entire as their recapture of New Amster- 
dam, or New York, about the same time (1G73-4), 
when, even yet, the tricolor of Holland floated glori- 
ously over every sea, and only seven years before 
(1667) had displayed its folds almost within sight of 
the startled population of London, while the hoarse re- 
sonance of the Dutchmen's cannonade sounded a grim 
accompaniment to the glare of England's burning fleet 
and naval preparation. 

It is by no means surprising that the English were 
able to render nugatory all the efforts of the Dutch in 
tliis quarter, for the vicinit}" of their settlements and 
the advances which they had made in population, ex- 
(}rted the same influence with regard to a conflict with 
the Dutch, as that which rendered the subjugation of 
the Thirteen Colonies impossible to the whole power 
of Great Britain. The chief difficulty which the Itol- 
landcrs had to overcome, was the distance which they 
had to transport their '■'■jjersonnel and materiel^'''' to con- 
test and retain possession of a country to which both 
French and English laid claim, and had partially occu- 
pied; to the East and North of wliich the former had 
already established tliemselves firmly, nnd {c> the Wesl 
and South-West the latter ; while another formidable 
obstacle existed in its very midst, in the presence of 



47 
the Indian tribes, strongly attached to their Roman 
Catholic allies, l^oth by the potent 1)onds of religion 
and interest. 

Almost midway between the mouth of the lovely 
Kennebeck, and of that main artery of the lumber- 
trade, the Penobscot, on the line of Lincoln and Han- 
cock counties, the ocean forms a deep and spacious — 
appropriately styled — Broad Bay ; which is so laid 
down on ancient maps, and is now known as Muscongus 
Bay ; embraced between Pleasant Point on the east, 
and Pemmaqnid Point on the west. At the head wa- 
ters of this Bay, once known as Broad Cove, as early 
as 1632 (?) the Dutch landed and made a settlement; 
of which many interesting vestiges are still in exist- 
ence ; and, it is said, that to this day, the Dutch lan- 
guage is perpetuated in the township of Bremen, lying 
on the west side of Broad or Muscongus Bay ; main- 
tained by the constant accession of German settlers, 
invited thither by the sympathetic kindred ties of speech 
and lineage. At this time, or subsequently — although 
it is generally supposed that it was much later, towards 
the end of the XVIIth century, 1665 or 1680— Dutch 
families settled on several of the adjacent streams. At 
all events, at Woodbridge-Neck, on the eastern bank of 
the Sheepscot River, a mile above Wiscasset Point, or 
Village, there are appearances of a very ancient (Dutch?) 
settlement, where the cavities of many cellars are now 
manifest ; though there are trees in some of them of a 
lar'^e size. At the moment this is prepared, it is but 
honest to state that the authority is forgotten on which 
the date of 1632 is based for the first Dutch settlement 
in Maine ; but whether it was earlier or later, Sullivan, 
who is often quoted, and apparently regarded as excel. 



48 
lent authority by subsequent writers, admits that in the 
year 1642, the Colonies of Massachusetts, New Plym- 
outh, Rhode Island, aiul Coinieetieut, fornied a Con- 
gress of Commissioners, "for the ostensible purpose ol" 
fj^uarding themselves ngainst the Dutch, who had taken 
possession of the Territory on the south of them." 

It is reasonable to suppose that these Colonies were 
aroused to more decided measures, by the appearance 
of such sturdy enemies on the north likewise; and the 
actual (establishment of a settlement in that cpiarter. 
Their I'ears could not have been excited anew by any 
movements towards the south and east ; inasmuch as 
the Dutch had been already located along the Hudson 
for upwards of thirty years ; and on the Connecticut for 
the last eleven. This opinion seems also justified by 
the subsecpient language of the same historian : "When 
the Dutch and French had he/ore been in possession of 
Acadie, the people of the English Colonies were very 
uneasy at being destitute of the protection of the 
})arent state ; but their being Puritans, effectually pre- 
vented their having any assistance from the other side 
of the water, fu iho year 1635, the Plantations in New 
England appointed Edward Winslow as an agent to 
represent to his Majesty, that his territories were en- 
croached upon by the French and Dutch, and to pray 
that his Majesty would either procure peace with those 
nations, or give authority to the English Colonies to act 
in their own defence." 

What the force of the military quotas, to be furnished 
by the different colonies, amounted to in 1635, does 
not appear in this connection ; but in May, 1672, the 
union of the three Colonies of j\Iassachusetts, Plymouth 
and Connecticut, was renewed by Commissioners, and 



49 

ratified by the general Court at Boston. By that en- 
gagement, the proportion of men for any general ser- 
vice was settled for the fifteen years next ensuing, 
whereby Massachusetts was to furnish one hundred, 
Plymouth thirty, and Connecticut sixty men. 

There seems to be little or no doubt but that Broad 
Bay was the first point conquered or occupied by the 
Dutch ; the second, and certain scene of their gallantry 
and enterprise, Castine. This is one of the most remark- 
able points all along our Coasts ; which, under any other 
government than our own, would have long since been 
transformed into a naval and military fortress of the 
first class. The Peninsula of Castine, originally known 
to the Europeans as Bagaduce-point, or neck, but by 
the Indians styled Ma-je-big-wa-do-sook — twenty miles 
from the outermost island in Penobscot-Bay, — lies on 
the eastern side of the mouth of the river of that name, 
''which river was the ancient seat of Acadie," directly 
opposite to the flourishing Port of Belfast. It consti- 
tutes one of the most prominent objects in that panorama 
of Penobscot-Bay, whose beauty, when flooded with sun- 
light, will rank with many of the most celebrated coast- 
views of the Old World. To one unacquainted with its 
history, almost every vestige of its military occupation 
has disappeared, although a soldier's eye would readily 
detect their existence. 

Near the water, at the extreme point, are the remains 
of an old American Fort ; blown up by the English 
when they relinquished it. This appears to have been 
simply a half-moon battery, witli a brick revetment, 
resting upon a stone foundation without a ditch. Piles 
of brick in the rear of this work, indicate, perhaps, the 
location of furnaces for heating shot ; while at this time 



50 
a single rusty iron-gun, lying on the top of the parapet, 
is all that remains of its armament. Upon the summit 
of the hill, in the rear of this, the English who occupied 
this point throughout the Revolutionary and the last 
wars, and who had no idea of relinquishing a position 
so important, in every point of vicAV, constructed a large 
bastioned fort, or field-w^ork, now grass-grown, and un- 
dergoing gradual demolition by the action of the ele- 
ments. They likewise cut a deep ditch or canal through 
the narrow neck beyond; and thus rendered the penin- 
sula an island, more susceptible of defence ; whose natu. 
ral capabilities are such that it might easily be rendered 
a place of immense strength. The village itself is neat, 
pretty and attractive ; seated upon a spacious and ex- 
cellent harbor ; accessible at all seasons of the year, and 
possessing sufficient depth for ships of the very largest 
class. 

In 1G2G, or 1G27, the Colony of New Plymouth, set- 
tled on this Peninsula, then, as was stated above, called 
Bagaduce-point, or neck, and built a fort, whose ruins, 
or rather some faint appearances of such a defensible 
Avork, are known hy the name of Casteen's (Castine\s) 
fort. 

In iG35, Rosillan, a Frenchman, I'rom Nova Scotia, 
captured the trading house and fortified position, having 
three years' previous, in 1G32, by a stratagem robbed 
the garrison. 

From IG.'if) to 1G54, the ctmntry between the Penob- 
scot and St. Croix was in the possession of the French ; 
although in 1G53, Major Sedgwick, commanding an 
expedition sent out by Oliver Cromwell, ostensibly 
against the Dutch, who had settled on the Hudson, 
suddenly turned his course to Acadie, and removed the 



51 
French from the Penobscot. In 1670, Charles II. hav- 
ing by the treaty of Breda ceded all Acadie to the 
French, they, thus and then, obtained a re-possession of 
the territory ; although it is not certain that they did 
not maintain their military occupation of the fort of 
Mount Mantsell, or St. Sauveur, now Mount Desert, 
{Monts- Deserts) throughout that period, and even as 
late as 1696, when they had lost all their other posses- 
sions in this region. 

The Dutch, however, within three years after, i. e. 
1673 or 1674, expelled the French, and made them- 
selves masters of the country ; and the people of New 
England soon after, in turn, expelled the Dutch. ^'It was 
a very imprudent attempt,'' says the Puritan historian, '4n 
the Dutch to take possession of a country so remote 
from the Pludson, where they had fixed their Colony." 
He forgot, when he made this remark, that they had 
prosecuted more distant and dangerous expeditions, 
with glorious and lastingly beneficial results. 

Notwithstanding this nominal re-conquest by the 
New Englanders, the distresses of the Indian wars, 
from 1675 to 1692, rendered the country of very little 
consequence, whether to Great Britain or to Boston ; 
and scarcely any settlements, for agricultural purposes, 
were attempted in the earlier years of this Colony. 

This settlement was nearly broken up in 1676, and 
entirely broken up in the year 1690. "In fact the 
French were, with the Indians, in possession of that 
part of the Continent, until they were removed, after 
the year 1692, by Sir William Phips, the first Governor 
of the Province of Massachusetts, under the charter of 
of William and Mary." 

In relation to the expedition of Major Sedgwick, in 



52 
1653, and the Dutch occupation of the shores of the 
Penobscot, Sullivan would lead any reader to suppose 
that the Dutch held them at this early date — 1653 — 
and tlius must have iwlce^ if not ikrlce — 1653, 1674, 
and 1676 — wrested their trading posts in that (piarter 
from the French ; for, while at page 283, he states 
that the Cromwellian Commander removed the French^ 
with whom the English were at peace, from the dis- 
trict watered by the great river of Maine ; at page 
293, he uses the following distinct and unmistakable 
language : "In Acadie, there was another territory, 
east of the then county of New Castle, which was not 
comprehended within the Duke's (York's) Province of 
New York. This was perhaps the ancient Norumbegua. 
It extended from Pemaquid to St. Croix, compre- 
hending Mount Mansell, or Mount Desert, and the 
territory of Penobscott.'' 

-X- -X- ■!<- -X- -X- 

"It was there, that the people of New Plymouth 
erected their trading-house, in 1627, which was taken 
by the French ; was afterwards taken by tlie Dutch ; 
and re-taken by Sedgwick under Cromwell." 

Now, in 1653, England, at peace with I'rance, was 
engaged in a sharply-contested war witli the United 
Provinces ; and, it can be readily supposed that an ex- 
pedition of the former would be more likely to fall 
upon the positions of an enemy than those of a peace- 
able neighbor. However, such are the facts we pos- 
sess ; and we can only draAV the most reasonable infer- 
ence they admit ol". There — on the Penobscot — where 
the Dutch have lei"t mementoes of tlieir visits — the 
struggle between the French Pluguenot De i-a Toi'k, 
and his rival, the Roman (^atholic D'Ai'lnky, attract- 



53 

ed the attention of the American Colonies ; there, that 
extraordinary character, by some supposed to have 
been a Jesnit, the Baron Gastine, taught the natives 
the European art of war; and by his own influence,' 
and that of Le Masse, a R,oman Catholic Priest, as well 
as of the missionaries of that Church, in general, ren- 
dered the Penobscot Indians, savage enough by nature, 
still more pitiless and cruel. 

Thus flir, Sullivan. In this connection, some few 
details present themselves in Williamson's History : 
"The Dutch," says he, "had manifested early and great 
desires to share the North American coast with the 
English and French." "The country was open and in- 
viting to various adventurers. The Indian trade, mast- 
ing and fishing, offered encouragement to enterprise." 
"Commercial in their pursuits, they — (the Dutch) — 
knew how to set an adequate value upon water-priv- 
ileges ; and, after their treaty with England, A. D. 1674, 
being still at war with France, they dispatched an arm- 
ed ship to seize upon the Fort at Penobscot. In the 
capture, there was a loss of men on both sides. The 
success was not pursued — the enterprise offered no 
considerable gains ; and the possession acquired was 
not long retained." 

Even without liu'tlier information, can there be any 
doubt whatever, that the armed vessel referred to 
above was the "Flying Horse," which, in the connnis- 
sion of the West India Company, mentioned in the pre- 
ceding portion of this paper, is stated to have "con- 
quered and subdued the coasts, and countries of Nova 
Scotia and Acadie '?" 

In this expedition "was also present, and assisted 
with his advice and fovce, John Rhoade," who was em- 



54 
powered, by the Ordinance, dated 11th September, 
I67f), to take possession of and colonize, cuHivate and 
trade along the whole of the adjacent coast ; and which 
invested him, in fact, with full powers, to protect and 
maintain himself thereupon. 

Williamson subsequently goes on to say : ''Such was 
the peculiar intipathy generally entertained towards 
the principles and manners of the French, that any 
seizure of their dominions, it might be well supposed, 
woukl excite gratitude, as well as pleasure, among the 
English Colonists. Possibly influenced by this motive, 
certainly by a perpetual desire of possessing a fine un- 
occupied region, the Dutch again, in the spring of 
1676, sent a man of war to Penobscot, and captnred 
the French fortification there ; determining now to 
keep possession of the country. But, as this was a part 
of New England, and within the Duke's (of York's) 
Province, and as anticipations were entertained of its 
returning, amid some future events, to the English, or 
their Colonists, either by purchase, recession, or re- 
conqucst, two or three vessels were dispatched thither 
from Boston, which drove the Dutch from the penin- 
sula.'' 'To the French, this must have alforded the great- 
er satisfaction, because the English captors did not 
tarry, but immediately abandoned the place." 

In connection with the first of these exi)cditions, 
Hutchinson furnishes, as a note to his History of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, a manuscript account of a message 
from Hartford to New York, which gives the following 
interesting incidents: 

"May 28th, 1672, war was proclaimed against the 
Dutch in Bostcm, in conse(|uence of the King's declara- 
tion of war, published in England. This was the first 



55 
instance of any public declaration of war in the Colony. 
In the Dutch wars, in the time of the Parliament and 
Cromwell, and in the former war, after the restoration, 
until forces came to reduce the Mahadoes (Manhattan), 
correspondence and commerce continued between the 
Colonies, notwithstanding the war in Europe." 

''In August, the same year, 1672, advice came to 
Boston, that the Dutch, after taking several ships, at 
Virginia, had possessed themselves of New York; 
whilst Colonel Lovelace, the Governor, was at New 
Haven ; and that the Dutch force was bound further 
northward. This intelligence caused a great alarm in 
the Colony. The Castle having been destroyed not 
long before, Boston was less capable of defence. The 
best preparations were made. The Dutch fleet return- 
ed to Europe." 

''This acquisition was accidental, according to the 
account given by the Dutch at New York." "Four Hol- 
landers" — sent to sea, by the Admiralty of Amsterdam, 
under the command of Commodore lacob 33inkcs, — 
"and three Zealanders" — under Capt.(!IorJiclius ^ucrtsoii, 
son of the Vice-Admiral of the same name, dispatched 
by the States and Admiralty of Zealand— "met off Mar- 
tinico ; one side with French, the other with English, 
colors ; and prepared to fight — until, b)' hoisting their 
proper colors, they better understood one another. 
They then joined together, and agreed upon an expe- 
dition to Virginia and New York. The Dutch Guinea 
Fleet was intended for the same service ; but these 
other ships saved them the trouble." 

Besides their first settlement at Broad Ba3% and 
their conquests on the Penobscott, Dutch Colonies 
were planted on several points between the Kennebeck 



50 
andPenocRcot; along the important cstnavies, which, 
penetrating' deeply into the land, afforded such facilities 
for intercourse, when land-travel was almost interdicted. 

"Settlements," says Sullivan, "from the year 1665, 
were increased in Pemaquid — settled before Boston — 
about thirty miles west of Penobscot Bay. There were 
a number of people who came down I'rom the Dutch 
settlements at the Manhatoes, or New York. The 
Duke of York had the New Netherlands, or what is 
now New York, granted him in the year 1664." "The 
settlements hicreased until the year 1680." "His Gov- 
ernor, named Dungan (Dongan), was over this eastern 
o-rant, as well as that on the Hudson. Tlie Govern- 
ment under the Duke erected a Fort at Pemaquid, 
near the remains of which is the ruin of a town ; there 
is yet, under the rubbish, a paved street, and the cellars 
of nearly thirty, or perhaps forty, houses. The lands 
there were granted under the Duke of York's title ; 
and many Deeds, made by his Governor, have been ex- 
hibited in the contests in that country, within thirty 
years past." 

During his administration and agency of live years — 
which terminated with the month of March, 1688 — 
particularly about the year 1687, Dongan, who was 
both Governor of the Province and private agent of 
the Duke, removed many Dutch families from the 
banks of the Hudson to his [James's] new Province, 
on Sheepscot Eivc]-. Tliey remained there, and at 
Pemmaquid, until the settlements were broken up by 
the wars, which were soon afterwards commenced witli 
the savages. But these devastations of the Fi-encli, 
and their barbarous allies, were not the first wrongs 
which the unfortunate Dutch Colonists had experienced. 



57 

Ail Governor Dongan's "measures in this region were 
rendered extremely unpopular, by the cupidity and 
arbitrary procedure of his agents, Palmer, West, and 
Graham ; for they placed, and displaced, at "pleasure"; 
and some of the first settlers were denied grants of 
their own homesteads ; while these men were wickedly 
dividing some of the best improved lands among 
themselves." 

Thus terminated in misfortune the last settlement 
effected by the Dutch upon the coast of Maine : and I 
should remark that yet slight mementoes of the race 
and language in that region are among the best 
proofs of the fearless and stubborn perseverance of 
the self-reliant Hollander. 

Here ends the result of these historical investiga- 
tions, as to the JDutcIj in illainc, with the exception 
of a few remarks relative to the opinions entertained 
by the English towards the Dutch. The former appear 
to have set the highest value upon the natural advan- 
tages of the regions now embraced within the limits 
of the state of Maine. According to Hutchinson, Pre- 
sident Danforth held, "that it were better to expend 
three thousand pds. [sterling] to gain Canada itself " — 
which included Acadie — "than that either the French 
or the Dutch should have it ; such is the value of the 
fishery, masting, and fur trade." This Governor Dan- 
forth, a man of integrity and wisdom, vv^as elected De- 
puty-Governor in 1679, and in the same year first 
President of the Province of Maine. He held both 
these ofiices until the arrival of Governor Andros, at 
the end of the year 1686. Of this Governor (An- 
dros), it is said that he " feared the Dutch," the 
more particularly as he supposed that "if they again 



58 
seized upon the open country, between the Penobscot 
and St. Croix, which were both in his Commission, 
and in the Duke of York's Patent, tliey might, with 
the present temper of the (English) nation in their fa- 
vor, be permitted to retain possession of it." We 
must remember, that at this date the British nation 
were looking to lllilllam, JPvincc of ©range, and his 
Protestant subjects, the Hollanders, as their only means 
of deliverance from spiritual and political tyranny. 
The Dutch, however, appear to have been the only 
enemies whom the New Englanders really feared in this 
quarter. This is readily explained. As seamen, the 
Dutch stood unrivaled ; and this coast afforded not 
only materials for a navy, but various sources of wealth 
to a commercial people ; moreover, the French never 
appear to have succeeded as Colonists, while the Dutch 
seem to have scarcely ever met with flxilure. 

On the sea, the British encountered an equal foe in 
the Hollander. With the Frenchman, on that element, 
not his OAvn, every engagement insured an almost cer- 
tain and glorious triumph. Hence, the commercial 
enterprise of the former, and their skill and bravery 
in action, aroused the latent spirit which has marked 
the rivalry Avhich time and circumstances are lessening ; 
because, whilst the valor of the Dutch has suffered no 
diminution, their physical power has decreased. Like 
causes produce like effects. The power which of old 
directed its efforts, and those of the English Colonists, 
to expel the Dutch from North America, has seen an- 
other nation there arise to contend with it for the mas- 
tery of the seas — having the expanding stature of a 
giant, the numerous sinewy arms of Briareus, and the 
keen eyes of Argus ; of which, if the assertion of Ovid 



59 
be true, only two of the one hundred are asleep at a 

time ! 

* -ss- * * 

And so, for the present, with an anecdote of a Dutch- 
man's gallantry in New England, we bid adieu to the 

^^Slxttcl) in iHaine": 

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a British naval Com- 
mander was sent to cruise upon the coast of Spain, Avith 
instructions, however, to confine himself within certain 
limits, under penalty of death in case of any trans- 
gression of his orders. Having received intelligence 
that some Spanish vessels lay at Vigo, beyond the 
bounds of his cruising ground, he resolved to proceed 
at once to attack them, although he periled his life by 
so doing. 

Fortunately, a complete success rewarded his gallant- 
ry, and no doubt saved his life. On rejoining the Ad- 
miral, to whose fleet his vessels belonged, he was imme- 
diately placed under arrest, and asked if he was aware 
that by the articles of war he was liable to be shot for 
his utter disregard of the orders issued for his guidance? 
His reply is so honorable and patriotic, that it is much 
to be regretted that the author's name is not recorded : 
"I was perfectly aware of the penalty incurred," said 
he, "but I felt that the man who is afraid to risk his 
life in any ivay^ when the good of his country re- 
quires it, is unworthy of a command in her Majesty's 
service." 

This officer had several of the strongest incentives 
to influence his course of action : not only the hope of 
personal distinction and glory, but national pride and 
intense hatred of the enemy. Still, none of these de- 
tract from his credit. — But Hutchinson, in his History, 



60 
records a much more remarkable parallel case, where 
gallantry, and a mere sense of duty, induced a Dutch 
sailor to run an equal risk, with a much greater cer- 
tainty of suffering the penalty. And if the ships of 
the United Provinces were manned with men cast in 
such a mould, and animated with such a spirit, it is not 
to be wondered that, with this and no doubt other 
similar examples before them, the jealous fear which 
the English felt towards the Dutch, as to a naval and 
commercial people, should have extended to New 
England, and rendered the Pilgrim Fathers exceeding- 
ly uneasy at every appearance of a Dutch frigate or 
squadron upon their own or the neighboring coast. 
It is in this connection, that the following anecdote 
does not seem inappropriate to the subject : 

It appears from a letter dispatched from Massachu- 
setts Bay to London, in 1675, that one Olorndis — a 
Dutchman — who had been captured and sentenced to 
death for some offence against the real or imaginary 
maritime rights of that Colony, was pardoned on con- 
dition of enlisting in the forces destined to act against 
the celebrated Indian King, Philip, who had, in the 
very year above mentioned, commenced that terrible 
war which desolated the settlements in New England. 
On one occasion, (jlovudia pursued the celebrated Sa- 
chem, and pressed him so hard, that he obtained pos- 
session of his cap or head-dress, and afterwards wore 
the trophy himself The Commandant of the Provin- 
cial troops, finding him so brave a man, promoted and 
sent him on a certain occasion at the head of twelve 
men, "to scout," with orders, for some particular rea- 
son not stated, to return within three hours, on pain 
of death in case of disobedience. While scourinf^: the 



61 
country, he came suddenly upon sixty Indians, who had 
just landed, and were hauling up their canoes upon the 
shore. Of these he killed thirteen, captured eight, and 
followed the rest as far as he could, until debarred far- 
ther pursuit by swamps and other natural obstacles. 
On his return march he burned all the canoes belong- 
ing to the routed party. This exploit occupied eight 
hours. On rejoining the main body, a council of war 
was summoned, and (Eornelts, although it is scarcely 
credible, instead of promotion and high reward, was 
sentenced to death for breach of orders. Had he been 
an Englishman instead of a Dutchman, his gallantry 
would, doubtless, have been amply recompensed ; but 
as it was, the Puritans held that fhey acted justly 
in pardoning him a second time. The dauntless Hol- 
lander seems to have been a true son of the Father- 
land (batcrlttub), feeling that 

" Tlie path of Duty 
Is the way to Glory" ! 

and a short time afterwards, having been detached on 

another scout, brought in twelve Indians alive and 

two scalps. 

-;t ^ ^ * 

Although the theme selected for this evening might 
here be drawn to a close, it is difficult to lay aside the 
pen, with the enterprise and resolution of the Holland- 
ers so vividly impressed upon the mind, by the exam- 
ination of the records of their voyages, of their dis- 
coveries, and of their triumphs. The influence of the 
Dutch upon the progress of the Middle States, has 
never been sufficiently considered in any history of that 
region, which embraces the "Empire" and "Key-Stone" 
States, whose possession by the British and emancipa- 



62 

tion by the Patriot armies of the PtevohTtion, decided 
the fate of that contest which made us what we are. 
Without solidity of character, no bulwark, however 
wisely planned, and theoretically constructed, can re- 
sist the assaults of corruption, or the gradual aggress- 
ions of time. A bulwark deficient in the main princi- 
ple — solidity — resembles the painted screens set up by 
the Chinese and Japanese, in the hope of imposing 
upon an enemy, by sucli fictitious representations of 
fortresses and entrenchments. The solidity of charac- 
ter which distinguishes the population of the "Empire 
State," is due, in a great degree, to the Dutch element- 
ary ingredient, which met and repulsed the encroach- 
ments of French • ambition. No province furnished 
troops throughout the long wars with France and the 
Mother Country, so susceptible of discipline, so patient 
of fatigue, and so determined in combat, as that of 
New York. The fiercest battle which characterizes our 
Revolutionary history, the bloody struggle at Oriskany, 
where the opposing troops lay locked in the death gripe 
with their weapons sheathed in each other's bosoms — 
was decided, in its very centre, by the Dutchmen of Mo- 
hawk, as yet almost without admixture of any other 
leaven. 

That victory, which was among the first — and in many 
respects the very first — that opened the eyes of the 
European governments to the reality of the power of 
the American Colonies, and the probability of their 
ultimate success ; that victory which delivered into the 
hands of the Americans, Burgoyne's carefully prepared, 
ably officered, and splendidly appointed army, was due, 
in common with the other gallant soldiers there collect- 
ed, chiefly to the Dutch troops, marshalled by the activ- 



63 
ity, energy, capacity and patriotism of an Americo-Dutch 
General, who Itad decided the question by masterly dis- 
positions and dogged resistance — taking advantage of 
natural obstacles, and combining the defences furnished 
by nature with the stubborn courage of the people — be- 
fore the forces from other States had concentrated their 
numbers, or an English General, through the influence 
of New England, had assumed the command. 

On the 6th of December, 1828, the late Chancellor 
Kent, then President of this Society, delivered the An- 
niversary discourse ; in which, in clear and forcible lan- 
guage, he pointed out the distinctive merits of the 
many eminent men who, in their several spheres, had 
nobly sustained the well-earned fame of this, their native 
State, by their talents, their zeal, and patriotic devotion ; 
the most conspicuous of whom were of HoUandish de- 
scent. In a well merited and animated eulogium, he 
bore testimony to the transcendant abilities and charac- 
teristic virtues of that General, Philip Schuyler, whom 
Gates superseded, and who fell a sacrifice, according to 
Chief Justice Marshall, to prejudices — the influence of 
which, as above stated, unhappily for himself and his 
country, on that occasion prevailed. 

No matter how strong the Dutch ingredient, a greater 
numerical preponderance of the English almost conceals 
its actual existence ; and this vast numerical aggregate 
of the descendants of Englishmen, is sufficient, in itself, 
to account for the comparatively small influence exhib- 
ited by those of the Hollanders in these United States. 
We say, comparatively small ; yet, it is wonderful, with 
all the efforts which have been made to conceal and 
decry the influence of the HoUandish blood, to find 
to what a degree it has nevertheless made itself felt, 



64 
and compelled iiuAvilliiig acknowledginent. That very 
fact, — its existence — the growing investigation of its 
origin, and the development of its forces — is the proud- 
est monument which can be reared to HoUandish an- 
cestry. Year by year, justice has been, and will be, 
more and more accorded to it. 

New England enterprise and its results are justly the 
boast of New England historians, orators, politicians, 
and jdivines. Both have been wonderful — greater, by 
far, than those of the New Netherlanders. But why ? 
Every honest investigator of history, while willing to 
admit that the New Netherlanders have not grown to 
like stature, has likewise attributed it to the just cause 
— the monopolizing efforts of the Dutch West India 
Company, whose jealousy of individual profits contract- 
ed all the operations of the Dutch settlements on this 
Continent. But a New Netherlander has no need of 
defence, when he can carry the war into Africa, and 
win an historical and Christian Zama under the very 
walls of his opponents' Carthage. The New Nether- 
lander can go forth to the moral battle — leaving his 
household treasures secure within the safeguards, of 
which an honest purchase of the soil laid the founda- 
tign, and persevering thrift and stainless integrity 
built up the towers. New Amsterdam and its depend- 
ant towns and villages had laid the corner-stone of their 
institutions, upon the principles of universal brother- 
hood and religious toleration, and built up each suc- 
cessive course with that impermeable cement which 
alone can bind the human race together — peace and 
good will towards men ! Except during the adminis- 
istration of one bad Governor, Willem Kieft, the au- 
thorities of New Amsterdam cultivated the friendship 



65 

and co-operation of the Indian tribes, with such success 
that the fierce Indian became, under their influence, 
comparatively amicable ; admitting that the Hollanders' 
tongue was not yet "forked," like most of the other 
white men's tongues, with whom they had been brought 
in contact. Undoubted historical facts attest the influ- 
ence exercised over the neighboring tribes by the 
brave and honest CUovlacr, whose name the Indians held 
so honorable that they conferred it as the most fitting 
title on all the New York Governors ; and of that 
stout-hearr.ed, true, and generous "Quidder" — as the 
Iroquois pronounced the Christian name of JJctcr 
Sdjituler — Avhose word was law to the celebrated Five 
Nations. The latter's peaceful laurels no bigoted and 
prejudiceci historian can displace, even as they were 
torn from the brovv' of his illustrious son, to crown the 
undeserving, vapid, and defeated opponent of Corn- 
wallis at (.'amden. ' 

Again : How many authors, who have devoted their 
pens to tli<j history of our country, have been seduced 
into the error of countenancing the statement, that the 
only colony on this Continent which proclaimed reli- 
gious toleration, with the first display of its ensigns, 
was that of Maryland ! This error is worse than a com- 
mon error ; since it is an injustice to a joeople who, at 
home and abroad, have been ever tolerant — so tolerant, 
that in Holland alone, of all other nations on the face 
of the earth, prior to the middle of the preceding cen- 
tury, even the Jews became fixed and patriotic citi- 
zens. 

When the people of the eastern settlements were de- 
priving the Dutch of their choice lands along the Con- 
necticut, fugitives from thence, for opinion's sake, had 

9 



66 

resorted to Ncav Amsterdam, wliere the}' were received 
with a hospitality only equalled Iw that. offered by the 
pai'ent country to the Protestant refugees from the tyr- 
anny of P'rance. it was not until New Amsterdam had 
become de facto New York, and the English elements 
had predominated over the Batavian and Knickerbocker, 
that anything like intolerance was admitted into the 
administration and councils of the Colony. Even the 
Jesuits found in the Dutch not only a sympathetic and 
tolei-aiit but a practical Christianity, which, more than 
once, at great risk, interposed between them and their 
captors, the Indians, in the interest of the Anglo-Saxon 
settlements. 

When the aged Charles IX., of Sweden— with difti- 
culty maintaining, by the superiority of his sagacity, as 
well as the force of his arms, his rights and the integ- 
rity of the Swedish realm, against a union of potent 
and inimical neighbors — was gradually lapsing into a 
state of physical debility, he felt his powers, as it were, 
rejuveui^ted, and the future of his country assured, in 
contemplating the goodly promise of his great son, 
dpllBtEIIUB !Jlkl|lljllS ; JH^d, thus comforted and sustain- 
ed, the warrior-politician sunk into his grave with a 
prophetic ""llle faciei-'' on liis lips and in his heart. 
Even so, inen of Hollandish blood can afford to hope 
and wait. The Anglo-Puritan history of the NewNeth- 
erlandcrs has been written, and ably written; but that 
of the Saxon-Knickerl)ockei- renuiins fo be written. 
The historian is yet to arise, who, rich in the fruits of 
faithful and laborious reseai'ch, and endowed with 
gi'aphic power, commensurate with his subject, will 
mingle with his theme the lidelity and ardor of a ma- 
tured judgment. ^^lUe faciei T — He will accomplish 



67 

it! Meanwhile, let us content ourselves with the 
the aphorism of Montesquieu : '^Tot ou tard, tout se saif' 
Sooner or later, everything is known. The good time 
must come, when truth will be made manifest ! Light 
is breaking in upon a people who now judge for them- 
selves ; who ]iot only read the books of other nations, 
but publish, read, and multiply their own. We have 
learned to see with our own eyes, and to form our own 
conclusions. In this march of mind, the gifted author 
of "The Rise of the Dutch Republic,''' has nobly 
placed himself in the van ; and in glowing language 
has happily and truthfully described the race which 
chained the tyrant Ocean, and his mighty streams, into 
subserviency — a race, which engaged for generations 
in stubborn conflict with the angry elements, was un- 
consciously educating itself for its great struggle with 
a still more savage despotism, in its successful and 
immortal struggle for the rights of men ! 

Even as with fabled brilliancy and flashing rays, 
those monster carbuncles, set on high in the front of the 
Church at Wisby, which bears the time-honored name 
of the ''good St. Nicholas," once served as guiding 
stars to the wave-tossed mariner, inward and outward 
bound, in his perilous voyage across the angry deep ; 
so the radiance which emanates from the chronicles of 
the land of illilliam the Silent, the Father of his 
Country ; of illaurice the Warrior, renowned in every 
branch of Avarlike art and science ; of ulilliam, England's 
Liberator, great in all qualities which ennoble man ; of 
Wt liugter, one of the most perfect — if not the most 
perfect — characters which history records ; of Wm- 
rencoorbe ; of J3t ^octc ; of Klaas^oon ; of Jpirt i^cwn ; 
of ®b(5am; of Wz iUittc ; of '^romp; of (^Dertstn ; of 



68 

^crinskerclc ; of ^outman ; of l^oeljoont ; of (Sinkcll ; 
of \}an 3oi}claav ; of ^Ijasst ; of \)an Spyk ; of l)au 
kv ^a; of Barnarelbt ; of JDc lUitt ; of ©rotlus ; of 
lacjel ; of £)einsuis ; of \)an Witmcn ; of Bnttiiuk ; of 
Bctjerninck ; of t)an bcr (Eaptllm ; of l)an be Speigcl ; 
of Scljimmclpcnnmck ; of (Erasmus ; of I3ocrl)QQUc ; of 
ijuggens van ^uglicljem ; of Uuijsdj ; of Sruginans ; 
of Qcmsterljucs ; of Katj ; of l)outi£l ; of Biltrerliglt ; 
of Branbt ; of ll^agenaar ; and of a host of other 
eminently gifted warriors, statesmen and scholars, 
will illuminate the pathway which leads to the estab- 
lishment of correct and liberal principles throughout 
all lands ; where the example of our own immortal 
WASHINGTON, and of the patriot srges of the Re- 
public, has not yet produced its vivifying effects. 

In the desperate conflict which mark 3d the revolt of 
the United Provinces, Holland achieved her civil and 
religious liberty. This taught her English neighbors 
a lesson, which lllJJ££3^iiH of Orange enabled them 
to improve with similar success. 

When England, forgetful of the past, would trample 
on the rights of her American Colonies, these followed 
the sfime example, adopted, like the Dutch, a Federal 
Union, and making themselves independent, built up 
the glorious fabric of the American Hepublic. 

Like another Pharos, may the light Avhich beams 
from this lofty pinnacle, reflecting its rays upon the 
declared principles of that independence, irradiate 
every dark spot on the earth's surface ; and may po- 
litical aspirants, both here and every where, learn that 
this light is the safest guide, under Providence, to the 
only secure anchorage of virtuous success ! 



jSrOTES. 



[No. 1 . — Lines 7,-8, page 8 ] 

The Dutch (Hollanders) discovered the region now known as the State 
of New York iu 1609 ; erected a fort in 1612-'3 ; and established a perma- 
nent settlement in 1614. They settled in New Jersey shortly after their 
arrival in New York, particularlj' at Bergen, between 1614 and 1624. 
They erected a trading house at Hnrtford on the Connecticut in 1631 ; and 
subjugated Delaware in 1655. 

[No. 2.— Line 4, page 15.] 

Parry, on the 22d [?] July, 1827, had certainly reached 82 degrees 40 
minutes, and on the 23d 2^'>'oi((Mi/ had gained 5 minutes — i. e. 82 degrees 
45 minutes. As the author furnished Barektz's certainty^ he likewise 
stated Parry's farthest attainment by observation. 

[No. 3.— Lines 13 to 26, page 24.] 

If any of our readers admire the Dutch (Hollanders), let them examine 
Topographical De.'^criptions, with Historico-Political and Medico-Physical 
Observations, made jn Two Several Voyages, tlirough most parts of 
Europe, by John NoRTHi-tion, LL., M. D., London 1702 ; and he will 
find 14 pages (108-122) almost entirely devoted to praises of the 
Dutch nation, which, considering that their author is an Englishman, and 
their date a century and a half since, is pretty conclusive evidence of their 
truth. The whole book is quaint, but well worthy perusal. 

[No. 4. — Line 5, page 29.] 

Tn the Oude Ke}% (Old Church) of Amsterdam, lies interred 3^®® JJ 
bau 5D§I52Bp[SS3E3ae:2S., who commanded one vessel of the Squadron 
of which JSarcntj was the Chief-Pilot, Ice-Master and actual Conductor. 
He afterwards rose to the rank of Admiral, and distinguished himself by 
his bravery and euterprize. His monument bears ''this old inscription 
and historical account of his life and actions," for he lived to wear the 



7p 

palm and the laurel which belonged to that daring navigator who sleeps 
his last tombless sleep in the far North, which he was the first to explore ; 

Honori et Aeternikiti 

lacobc ab ^ccmskerck, 

Anistcl-Redamcnsi^ 

Viro forti et optime de patria luf^rito. 

Qui 

Post varias in notas, ignoiasque oras navigationen, in Xovom Zemhlam 

euh Polo Arctico duas ; in Iiidiam Orientalem versus A ntarcticum fotidem ; 

Imleque opimis Spoliis. An. GJqIQ CIV.., reverses victor. 

TANDEM 
Expeditionis maritimm adversus Hispan. Prcefectus., eoriindem validcnn 
Classem Hercideo misu aggresms in Freto Herculeo* sub ipsa arcc et 
urhe Oihraltar VII. Kal. Maii., An. ClQlO GVFI. fmlil et profiignvif, 

IPSE IBIDEM 
Pro patria t^trenuc dimicaits, gloriose occubuii, Animo Ooalo guadoi., 
Corpus hoc loco Jacet. Ave Lector., famamque viri ama et virtutcm. 

Cnjits EBGO 
Tllmtriiis. et Potcntics. Fmlerat. Provin. Iklgiw OJWINIBUS, P. P. 

H. M. P. 
Vixit, Aiiuoii. XL. Meih'iem /, Dies XIL 



[No. 5. — Line 12, page 31.] 

HAOKLUvrs Headland, takes its name from a distinguished naval his- 
torian of England, who was born about the year 1553, and died on the 23d 
September, 1G16, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, London. It is 
the most northern and western ]»oint of Amsterdam Island, once the head 
quarters of the Dutch whale fishery, and likewise the most northwestern 
of the Spitzbergen Arcliipelago, in Latitude 79 deg. -iTmin. north and 
Longitude 6 deg. 5inin. ea-st. Its "eminenfand rocky, snow-crowned front 
defies the unbroken violence of every gale which sweeps iicross tlie Arctic 
Ocean, while against its rock-strewn base, and Jutting reefs, the ice-fields, 
urged across the open sea from Greenland, are crushed into a yeasty 
"/vrrtsA," or, in severer seasons, grind and groan and jnle tliemselves, until 
they emulate the lofty point "perpetually covered wirh a mourning veil 
of black" rock moss or "lichens." 



*Vid. This Histoiy and Heemskerok's character. Erat omnino non 
t«m pecnnicu quam glorias avidus, hoc quoque Studium nulla sui jactantia 
prodens, quippe civilem invultum habitumque compositns altc absconderat 
animnm rnilitarum. Hug. Grot. Mislor., Liber. 16. 



71 

ThisHAOKLTiYT,witli bis Hollaudisli name, and doubtless Hollandnh ori- 
gin, but Englisb parentage, gained tbe liighest esteem and honor, from 
mariners of all ranks, in the most distant nations, no less than his own. 
Deayton, a contemporaneous English poet, apostrophizes the naval histo- 
rian, wJiose spirit aniumted his countrymen to maritime adventure, thus : 

'' Thy voyages attend 

Industrious Hackluyt ; 
Whose reading shall inflame 

Men to seek fame. 

And much to commend 
To after-times thy wit." 

When Hendkick Hrosox, in 1607, in a voyage towards the North Pole, 
re-discovered Spitzbergen—^AVsf discovered in 1596, byiSarentJ— he distin- 
guished its uorth-western "eminent promontory" by the name of Haok- 
luyt's Headlaxu, by which it is still known ; and, seven years afterwards, 
an English crew, sent out by the Enghsh Russia Company, planted there- 
upon the banner and erected the arms of England ; thus assuming the 
rights of possession and the honor of discovery which belonged to 38areni?, 
and tbe Dutch nation. 

[No. G. — Lines 15 to 21, page 40.] 

"The survivors appeared before the people of Amsterdam in the dresa 
they wore at Nova Zembla. Curiosity was awakened everywhere respect- 
ing them. They were taken to the Ministers of foreign States, at the 
Hague, to relate their perils and give an account of the frigid land, which 
none of the southern natives had visited before. Their treatment on their 
arrival home must, in those days, have been an ample compensation to 
the survivors tor their past sufferings."— ^rcfic Adventures, by Sea and 
Land, &c. &c. ; Edited by Epes Saegent. 

[Ns. 7.— Lines 25 to 27, page 40.J 

Nom-Zembla ov Fovaia-Zemlia.—K vast insular territory of the Arctic 
or Northern Icy-Oceau— belongs to European Russia, constituting a de- 
pendency of the Government of Archangel, district of Mezen, and lies 
between Latitude 70 degrees 35 minutes and 77 degrees north, and Longi- 
tude 45 degrees 25 minutes and 75 degrees [77 degrees ?] east. This ice- 
bound region is divided into two islands by the narrow Strait of Matotsch- 
kin-Shar, is separated by the Strait of Kara from the island of Vaigatsch, 
and is washed on the south by the Sea of Kara and on the west and 
north by the Northern Icy or Arctic Ocean. 

The southwestern and western coasts are tolerably well knowo ; the 



72 

northern, even yet, imperfectly — but little, if any, better than when 
jBarentt tirst examined them ; while the eastern, defended by impassable 
barriers of eternal ice, have never been explored. On the western shore, 
an arm of the sea, in Latitude 73 degrees north appears to penetrate 
deeply into the country. 

The extreme length of these islands, measuring from Cape Zelania — 
Zhelania, Jelania, Jelanii, or Desire — Latitude 70 degrees 58 minutes [77 
degrees ?] north. Longitude 74 degrees 20 minutes east [76 degrees 40 min- 
utes] — the most northern point of Europe — to CapeTchernyi, their south- 
western extremity, is a little over two hundred leagues, say sis hundred 
miles. Their mean breadth from the northwest to the southeast may be 
calculated at about seventy leagues, say two hundred and teu miles. 

Between Capes Zelania and Severo Vostotchnoi, the most northern ex- 
tremity of Asiatic Russia — and consequently of Asia — in the Government 
of Jeniseisk, Latitude 78 degrees 25 minutes north. Longitude 102 degrees 
[98 degrees] east, extends an open sea, almost invariably, however, en- 
cumbered with icebergs and ice-fields, but said to have been sailed over, 
in 1611 or 1014, by an adventurous Dutch Captain [See Scobesby's Arctic 
Regions, Vol. /., Appendix III.^ page 60] to the eastward of Nova Zera- 
bla, for tlie space of one hundred and forty leagues. 

The coasts as yet exploi*ed are extremely broken and precipitous ; 
the southern low and flat ; the western bristling with gray sandstone 
cliffs, which, although not very high, are almost perpendicular. No an- 
chorage may be said to exist. 

Even in the southei'n districts the country is hardly known beyond a 
distance of five leagues from the western shore. This part is watered by 
fifteen small rivers, which empty into the sea between the Straits of 
Vaigatsch andMatotshkin-Shar ; besides these, it possesses numerous lakes. 

The aspect of this country is perfectly horrible. Nothing but the 
gloomiest vegetation meets the eye, and the mountains present no other 
apparel except an eternal robe of snow and mail of ice. Excessive cold 
reigns tliroughont the greater part of the year. The interior abounds 
with reindeer, blue and arctic foxes, ermine and white bears, while the 
coasts swarm witli various spiecies of fish of the largest size, (whales, 
dolphins, porpoises, sliarks, «!!:c.,) seals, sea-cows, and "vast flights" of 
marine-birds. 

This desolate country is without fixed inhabitants, and only frequent- 
ed by Russian hunters and fishermen. 



73 

[No. 8. — Line 21, page 45.] 
APPOINTMENT OF THE INSTALLATION OF 

CorncUs Steeuiuyck, 

^s (SoBeruor of Nowa Scotia onit ^cabie. 



Hie Directors of tlie Privileged Oeneral West India Company of the 
United Netherlands. 



Aix those who shall see or bear these presents, Greeting : 
Know, that we, being convinced that the wealth of this Company would 
be greatly increased by the cultivation of those lands and places under the 
jurisdiction of our aforesaid grantees, and that it will be useful that these 
aforesaid lands and places should not remain uninhabited, but that some- 
body be duly settled there, and populate the country ; and afterwards 
thinking on expedients by which the navigation, commerce, and traffic of 
the aforesaid Company, and of all others who belong to it, may after some 
time be increased and augmented ; so is it that we, wishing to put our use- 
ful intention in execution, for the aforesaid and other reasons, by which we 
are persuaded ; following the second article of our aforesaid grant, and by 
the authoi'ity of the high and mighty States-General of the United Nether- 
lands, and upon mature deliberation of the Council, have committed and 
authorized, and we do commit and authorize, ffiomclis StecntDSCfe, in 
the name of, and for, the High and Mighty and the Privileged General 
"West India Company, to take possession of the coasts and countries of Nova 
Scotia and Acadie, including the subordinate countries and islands, so far 
as their limits are extended, to the east and north from the River Pounte- 
gouycet; and that he, SteeuUjMCft, may establish himself there, and select 
such places for himself, in order to cultivate, to sow, or to plant, as he shall 
wish. 

Moreover, to trade with the natives of the country, and all others with 
whom the Republic of these United Netherlands and the aforesaid Com- 
pany are in peace and alliance, to negotiate and to traffic in the goods and 
merchandizes belonging to them, send them hither and thither, and fit out 
ships and vessels for the large and small fisheries, to set the cargo j:shore, 
to dry and afterwards to sell them, so as he shall think it best ; and, gen- 
erally, to sustain and to maintain himself and his family, by no other than 
honest means. 

Moreover, that he, StcciiU)l)Cfe, in the name of the High and Mighty, 
and of the General West India Company, will be admitted to make con- 
tracts find alliances and engagements with the natives of that country ; also 
to build some forts and castles, to defend and to protect liimself against 

10 



74 

every foreign aud domestic force of enemies or pirates; and also to ad- 
mit and to protect all otlier persons and families who wish to come under 
obedience to the Company, if they swear due faithfulness to the much es- 
teemed High and Mighty, as their highest Sovereign Magistrate, to his 
Highness, My Lord t\.e Prince of Orange, as the Governor-Captain and 
Admiral-General, and to the Directors of the Privileged West India Com- 
pany. 

That mohkoter, the aforesaid Stccntowcfe, with the title and i)ower of 
Manager and Caj)tain, will provide, deliver and execute every thing that 
belongs to the conservation of these countries, namely : — 

The maintenance of good order, jiolice, and justice, as wculdbe required 
according to the laws and manners of those couutries; and, ])rincipal]y, 
that the true Christian reformed religion is practised within the limits of 
his district, after the usual manner, that StccntUl'tfe, according to thii^, 
may place some one — if he is a free-born subject of oui' union — in his of- 
tice ; who, in iiame and authority, moreover, with the title and a power 
as aforesaid, may take possession of the aforesaid countries to establish 
himself tliere; and further, to do and execute all those things w'hereto 
StCfntujick, himself, in aforesaid manner, is aulhc rized; all those things, 
nevertheless, without expenses, charges, or any kind of burdens to the 
Comj)any ; and with the invariable condition that the aforesaid StcciT- 
tol'Cfe, or the person whom he might place in his otlice, "n ill be obliged to 
execute the present Commission and authorization within the next eigh- 
teen months, or that by negligence or failure thereof it will be in our fac- 
ulty and power to give such a Commission and authorization to other per- 
sons than StecniuiJCft, or his Lieutenant, without any reference to this 
present one. 

MoREovEn, we have the aforesaid Stccntuucit, or his Lieutenant, so 
soon as they establish themselves within the limits of that particular, 
privileged and conceded district; and we do privilege and concede free- 
dom and immunity of all rights and recognizances for the time of six 
years successively. 

At last, and to conclude, that the aforesaid StcciltuMClt, or his Lieuten- 
ant, within the limits of the aforesaid district, will iiave the right to dis- 
tribute to others such countries and places for Colonies and farjjis as he 
shall think best; and that the managers and princii)als of those Colonies 
and farms, for the time of six years, shall be entirely possessed of the . 
aforesaid rights and recognizances. 

We command and charge also our Directors, Managers, Captains, Mas- 
ters of ships, and all our other officers who may belong to them, that they 
will have to acknowledge, to resjject, and to obey, the aforesaid (Eotuelis 
Stfeiitonck, or his Lieiitenaut, as Manager and Captain, within the limits 
of the aforesaid district; and, to jjrocure. to give, and to at^brd him every 



75 

help, aid, and assistance in the execution thereof, — seeing that we find it 
useful for the service of the Company. 
Given in Amsterdam, October 27, 1676. 

(Signed) CSaspar ^cUicorne. 

For Ordinance of the aforesaid Directors. 
(Signed) (P. (gaUinc. 

Most Honourable, Valiant, and Honest BeloverL Faithful: 

In answer to the remonstrances of your l)rother-in-l;nv, iK'icolaas, the 
Governor, we liave thought convenient to send your Honor, the enclosed 
Commission and authorization, being the permission to take possession of 
the coasts and countries of Nova Scotia, and Acadie, so far as its limits 
are extended from tlie river Pountegouet, to the east and north, in the 
name and upon tlie autliority of the High and Mighty States-General of 
the United ISTetheilands, and the Privileged General West India Company, 
confirming all such conditions as your Honor will see himself, by reading 
tlie aforesaid Commission. 

But, our intention is not to prejudice a Commission of the lltli Sept'r 
last, given to John Ritoade, a native of England, who was helping to 
conquer and sul)due the aforesaid coasts and countries in the year 1674, 
under the direction of Capt. Suirtaen ^entouts. A copy of tliat afore- 
said Commission is herewith, as witness for you: 

"We have commended the aforesaid Ehoade to give your Honor, from 
time to time his advice in regard to the state of afiairs, and as to what 
could be done for them by virtue of our aforesaid Commission, and we 
hope that it will be observed by him. 

Moreover, we ask and desire eagerly, that as soon as your Honor 
sliall have taken i)ossei-sion of the aforesaid lands, or may have sent some- 
body there in his nann.', you will tell us the state of afiairs there, and also 
what kind of business could there be practiced with gain and advantage; 
also, to let us know all those things which you may think advantageous 
for us to know. 

If, afterwards, theie should be found any minerals on any place there, 
we wish that yti.r Honor would send us some samples, with, and besides, 
your opinion and advice, in order to decide upon it. Finally, we com- 
mand your Honor to do all that wliich may increase the wealth of our 
Company. 

Wherewith flnisliing, we commend you to the protection of God. 
Amsterdam, October 27, 1676. 

(Signed) Oasprtr IJdlicoruc. 

For Ordinance of the aforesaid Directors. 

(Signed) C (©auinc. 



76 

The Dii'ectors of the Privileged General "West India Company of the 
United Netherlands. 

To ALL THOSE who shall see or hear these presents — Greeting : 

Know, TUAT whkeeas, in the year 1674, Captain Surrtaen ^ernouts, 
Master of the frigate "The Flying Horse," from Curagao, and charged with 
a Commission of his Highness the Prince of Orange, has conquered and 
subdued the coasts and countries of Nova Scotia and Acadie, in which ex- 
pedition was also present and assisted, with advice and force, John Rhoade : 

Therefore, we, after consulting the demand of aforesaid Pihoade, to 
establish himself in the aforesaid countries, and to remain there, and to 
maintain himself, have consented and permitted, and do consent and per- 
mit hereby, that the aforesaid Rhoade, in the name and by the consent 
of the General West India Company, shall take possession of the aforesaid 
coasts and countries of Nova Scotia and Acadie, in whatever place of that 
district it may please him, to build houses and to establish, to cultivate, 
and to keep in repair, plantations ; that he may trade and negotiate with 
the natives, and all others with whom the State of the United Nether- 
lands and the aforesaid Company is in peace and alliance ; in the first 
place, to send hither and thither his own goods and merchandize, after 
paying the duties to our Company ; in the second plac, to defend and 
maintain liimself against every foreign and domestic power of enemies. 
Also, we charge and command our Managers, Captains, Ship-Masters, and 
all other oflBcersiu the service of our Company, and we request all persons 
who do not belong to our Company, not to trouble, or to disturb tlie afore- 
said Rhoade; but, after shewing this Commission, to assist him in the 
execution thereof, and to give him all help, aid and assistance. 

Given at Amsterdam, Sept'r 11, 1G7G. 

(Signed) ©ospar pcUicomc, 

For ordinance of the aforesaid Directors, 

(Signed) C (Saniuc. 



The foregoing, furnished through the politeness of (iEOrge H. 
MooRE, Esq. Librarian of the New York Historical Society, are copies of 
the translations accompanying the original documents, presented, with a 
portrait of CTovnclis Stecntowcft, to the :Nc\B=¥oclt Jltiistorical Sociftw. at 
the stated meeting in November, 1856, by Mrs. Eliza M. Clark, of the 
Locusts^ near Shrewsbury, H. J., through CiEORGK De Haert Gillesi'ie, 
Esq. and John McMuLLEN,Esq., Librarian of the New York Society Library. 

March, 1857. 



77 

The CORNELIS STEENWYCK, invested with more than Gubernato- 
rial authority over tliis conquest, was a rich and prominent merchant of 
New Amsterdam, its tliird Mayor, and a long time associated with the 
ancestor of the writer, in the city administration, particularly at one of 
those crises which have never occurred without aflbrding additional proof 
of the fearless and unselfish patriotism of the Dutch. They belonged to 
that Commission who rivalled the resolution of the Musooyite in the con- 
flagration of Moscow — so often cited as an illustrious example of patriotic 
sacrifice — without evincing any of the ferocity which characterized the 
act of Rotopschin. To make good New Amsterdam against a threatened 
attack from the English, in 1673, by the orders of that determined Com- 
mission the suburbs, villas, smiling boweries and gardens, were all laid 
waste in ashes, so that they could neither impede the fire of the Artillery 
•of the Fort and Bastions of the place, nor afford cover and lodgment to 
the enemy. But in one respect their example has scarcely ever been im- 
itated: they not only destroyed for the good of the public, but they also 
paid for what the public good required to be laid waste. 

Tiie grandest passages of the history of tlie Hollanders upon this continent 
remain to be brought before the public eye— a grandeur unsurpassed by 
the records of any other Colony which has ever been established since 
the beginning of the world. 

[No. 9. — Lines 5 to 8, page 53.] 

Examine account of the Roman Catholic Missions in Maine, in the 
Collections of the Maine Historical Society^ pages 323 to 340. — "Biart," 
"Masse," "Deeuillettes," "Ralle." 

[No. 10.— Lines 20 a 22, page 07.] 

The monster carhinclcs, alluded to in the preceding pages, are said 
to have been displayed in the upper part of the front of the Church of 
St. Nicholas^ at Wisby,* where the ornamental roseworks or circles in 
which they were set still remain. 

So lustrous were these gems, it was averred, that their resplendency 
could be discerned at such a distance to seaward, as to serve in guiding 
mariners in the Baltic. "It is possible," says Laing, "that some glitter- 
ing sj>ar may have been inserted in these circles, which are constructed 



*See Laing's Tour in Sweden; Murray's Iland-Book for Northern 
Europe, Denmark, Sweden and Norway ; Murray's Hand-Booh for 
Northern Germany ; the mouUetisatConiS 2,rviC0H ; &c. &c. 



78 

of brick upon tho stone front, as if intended as a frame to some relic or 
ornament." When Waluemak, King of Denmark, made an onslaught upon 
Wisby, in July, 1361, slew 1800 hundred of its inhabitants, and plundered 
its shrines and treasuries, he loaded two ships with the booty and valuables 
delivered over as the ransom of the spoliated city. The vessel, however, 
freighted with these treasures, was not allowed to reacli its destination 
and grace the triumph of the pirate-monarch of Denmark, but was wreck- 
ed on the Carl Isles, lying oft' the S. AV. point of Gotldaud. 

The St. Nicholas Ohukoh, from wliich they were torn, is a large edi- 
fice, built in 1097, altogether in the Norman style, with long windows, 
and all the arches, which are very beautiful, painted. Wishy was the 
mother of the ITarifieatic cities — the most extraordinary place in the north 
of Europe. A seaport of the middle ages, it exists unbroken and unchanged 
ia a measure to the present day — having undergone less alteration from 
time, devastation, or improven)ent, than any place of the same antiquity. 
Once the depot gfall the merchandize of the Baltic, the i)eriod of its foun- 
dation is unknown, but in the tenth and eleventh centuries, two hundred 
years before the establishment of the Hanseatic league in 1241, it was one 
of the most important commercial citiesof Europe. During the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, it was a principal factory of the Hanseatic league, 
and it is moreover famous for the Code of Marine laws transferred to 
France by St. Louis in the eleventh ccntur3\ The foreigners were so nu- 
merous in this emporium, that each nation had its own cliurch and house 
of assembly, Avhich is very evident from the remains of so many places of 
worship within a few yards of each other. There are no less than eigh- 
teen ruins of churches wiihin its walls, among which that of St. Nicholas 
dates from the eleventh century. According to some historians, the Han- 
seatic league embraced upwards of eighty cities or towns, (while otliers 
fix the number at 60, and otliers again at 85,). Deputies, however, from 
85 towns assembled in their Representative Hall in Lubeck ; and tliere 
wa^ scarcely any commercial city in Northern Europe but was admitted 
into this Oonfedei'ation. From this fact it is reasonable to suppose that as 
mtiuy of the Dutch ports — (Boldward in Friesland, Elsburg, Grneningin, 
Handerwyck, Nimwegen, Ruremonde, Staboren, Venlo, Zutphen, Zwoll) — 
belonged to it, it is more than likely tliat merchants of Holland contributed 
to the construction of, and worshiped within the walls of, this very St. 
Nicholas Church. What "Porto Venere" is to the Western Mediterranean, 
Wisby is to the Baltic, both medisieval goras, perfectly preserved in tlieir 
original strange but arti-<tic settings; links, which, with Pompeii, nearly a 
thosisand years apart, connect tho present with theanti Christian eras. 

In conclusion: With regard to the fabled light-evolving properties of 
the Carbuncle, CiiAKr.EsEDWAKns discusseth thus agreeably and learnedly 
in his ^'History and Poetry of Finger Ringsy 



79 

"There was supposed to be a gem, called a Carbuncle, which emitted, 
not reflected, but native light. Our old literature abounds with allusions 
to the miraculous gem. Shakspeake has made use of it in Titus Andro- 
Nious, where Martius goes down into a pit, and by it discovers the body 
of Lord Bassianus, and calls up to Qdintus thus: 

'Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here. 
All on a heap, like to a slaughtered lamb. 
In this detested, dark, bhiod-drinking pit.' 

QuiNTcs : 
' If it be dark, how dost thou know "tis he?' 

Martius : 

'Upon his bloody finger he doth wear 

A precious ring, that lightens all the hole, 

Which, like a taper in some monument, 

Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheek. 

And show the ragged entrails of this pit : 

So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus 

"When he by night lay bathed in maiden's blood.' 

LuDOvious Vartojiaknus, a Roman, reporteth that the king ofPege 
(or Pegu), a city in India, had a carbuncle (ruby) of so great a magnitude 
and splendor, that by the clear light of it he might, in a dark place, be 
seen, even as if the room or place had been illustrated by the sunbeams. 
St. or Bishop Epiphanius saith of this gem, that if it be worn, whatever 
garments it be covered withal, it cannot be hid. 

It was from a property of resembling a burning coal when held against 
the sun, that this stone obtained the name carlunctdus ; which, being 
afterwards misunderstood, there grew up an opinion of its liaving the 
qualities of a burning coal and shining ia the dark. And as no gem ever 
Avas or ever will be found endued with that quality, it was supposed that 
the true carbuncle of the ancients was lo.'^.t ; but it was long generally 
believed that there had been such a stone. The species of carbuncle of 
the ancients, which possessed this quality ia the greatest degree, was the 
Garamantine or Oarthagenian ; and this is the true garnet of the mod- 
erns." 

J. W. DE P. 



80 



AUTHORITIES. 

Brodiikad's History of tiie State of New York. 

O'Callauan's History of the New Netherlands. 

New Yokk Historical Ooli.kctions, New Series. 

North American Eeview, No. CLXVIT., April, 1855. 

Kane's Arctic Explorations in the Years 1853,-''54-'55. 

Polar Seas and Regions — Harpers' Family Library, No. XIV. 

Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World — and older native 
and foreign publications of a similar nature. 

EncyclopcEdia Americana. 

Iconographic Encyclopoedia, Vol. HI., History and Ethnology. 
Ethnology of the Present Day. 

Daties' History of Holland and the Dutch Nation. 

W. SooRESBY, Jr.'s, Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History 
and Description of the Northern Whale Fishery. 

Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay. 

Hackltjyt's Collection of Voyages and Travels. 

James Sullivan's History of the District of Maine. 

WiLLLiAM D. Williamson's History of the State of Maine. 
&c. &c. &c. 



ERRATA 

requiring notice. 

Page 18, Line 29. — Aftev '■'■Smeerenherg,''' insert "or rather Smeerenlntrg ^ 
" 34, " 5. — Between "Z/y" and '■['/amniing^''^ insert '■'•the.'''' 
" 34, " 5 to Line 28. — The sentences need remodeling; the ori- 
ginal manuscript having been improperly copied, and the 
punctuation, &c., altered. 



(£ V V a t u 111 . 

Page 34, Line 12 to Line 28. — Instead of the present sentence, begin- 
ning: "While, thus," itc. read: — While thus the minds of the crew were 
agitated by the ever present dread of the instant and complete destruc- 
tion of their "frail bark," they were stunned and deafened by the noises 
made by the ice without, around them, throughout the harbor, and upon 
the adjacent shores. The thunder of the icebergs, hurled against each 
other by wind and tide, mutually crushing their mighty masses together, 
or toppling over with a din as if whole mountains of marble had been 
blown up by some explosive force — together with the creaking, cracking 
and groaning of the ship itself, arising from tlie freezing of the juices of 
the timber and liquids in the hold — all this created such a churme of con- 
fusion that the crew were terrified, lest their ship should fall to pieces with 
every throe, which seemed to rack it from deck to kelson. 



80 
AUTHORITIES 



Page 18, Line 20. — After '■^Smeerenlerg,^'' insert "w rather Smeerenhvrg." 
" 34, " 5. — Between "iy" and '•\'iamming,'''' insert "<Ae." 
" 34, " 5 to Line 28. — The sentences need remodeling ; the ori- 
ginal manuscript Laving been improperly copied, and the 
punctuation, &c., altered. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



013 983 483 5 ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 983 483 5 



Hollinfier 



